MPG

We haven't really talked a lot about mileage lately. Today, however, I finally got off my butt and went for a nice long(ish) bike ride, so I feel a bit better about broaching the subject.

For example, the pain of admitting that nearly the entire month of February was spent doing a whole lot of nothing is dulled a bit by being able to say that I rode for about 10 miles today. Of course, my total for the week is a paltry 15 miles or so, and admitting that is as though someone cut off my morphine.

I blame it on the dog. Bucket and I went for a nice long romp in the desert last Sunday. As much as I preach against it, there are times when I just want to see the boy run, so I let him off leash. He's quite good out there in the middle of nowhere, and as long as we never run into another dog, we should be just fine. He has chased many a lizard, what I presume to have been a rabbit, and this past Sunday found and tactfully avoided a rattlesnake (thank heavens he had the good sense to step away; I'm not sure what I'd have done if he'd decided it would make a fun chew toy). It's a real joy to see him exploring and occasionally looking over his shoulder to make sure I'm in sight. He comes when he's called (as long as there are no major distractions) and never gets too far away. If he can't hear my footsteps, he'll stand stock still and start looking fervently for me--I stop from time to time and "hide" just to make sure he's paying attention!

Anyway. The desert being what it is... I normally am the considerate parent and check his lil tootsies when we get home, but for some reason last Sunday I spaced it. I think I was just exhausted--5 miles of running through the desert on a toasty Spring afternoon will do that to a girl. I was laying on the bed, mustering up the energy to take a shower when Bucket walked up to the side of the bed and looked at me plaintively while lifting up one paw.

Sure enough, he had a GINORMOUS thorn in one of his pads. We had to get the needlenose pliers after it, and he shrieked like the little girl he is. Anyone would have thought we were poking a searing cattle prod in his eye or something. We cleaned it up and watched him limp around the house for the rest of the afternoon, clearly hoping that more attention would come his way.

The Monday morning walk of course had to be cancelled. We wanted to give him time to heal up properly, and taking Delilah and not him would have been paramount to asking for the animal kingdom's version of wailing and gnashing of teeth. Since he was no longer limping and showed no other signs of distress with the foot, I decided to take him for a short walk on Tuesday, which went just fine. Hooray.

Wednesday I'll have to blame on myself. I had decided to take my 24 allergy meds before bed, since they were making me a bit groggy during the morning, and when I tried to wake up at 6 am, I felt like I'd been beaten around the head with a sack of lead. Same result when I tried to wake up at 6:45, 7:15, and 7:45. I finally hauled my sorry self out of bed shortly after 8am, so no walkies Wednesday.

I have no idea why we didn't walk Thursday morning. I'm going to have to go with sheer laziness.

Friday? Well, lets just say that Bucket had a tummy ache on Thursday night and Friday morning and leave it there. I mean, I don't need to go into detail about what was going on with my boy's butt. It was gross. And it needed to be taken care of at 2am and again at 4am. And I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep at all really between those two times. So when 6am rolled around, I had long since re-set the alarm for a friendlier hour.

Wow, so it seems that I can really only blame the boy for 3 days of suckage this week. The rest of it was all me. But his days are the majority, so I'm going to stick with my previous assesment that it's all his fault.

And on an entirely different note, R took Bucket and Delilah with him to get coffee this afternoon. The rear windows in the xTerra were up, so the girl at the window couldn't see the dogs, but she could hear Bucket whining and chirping like he does. She honestly asked R if he had "a little chihuahua back there". I'm not sure how he stifled what surely must have been the world's loudest guffaw, but he simply rolled down the rear window and let Bucket stick his head out. The coffee girl was shocked, to say the least. A little chihuahua indeed!

So yeah. Lowish miles this week overall, but today was a good day. I'm hoping to make that a more regular ride, as it's fast, easy (totally non-technical so I can push the speed and get the heart rate up!), and variable enough to keep me from getting bored. The cupcake bites have really been a bane to any sort of "get skinny" plan; my only hope is to get more active! With summer fast approaching, my outdoor activity window grows slimmer and slimmer--unlike my belly!

I'll get some totals together soon; I'm not entirely sure where I stand overall and it would be good information to have. But now...sleep!