I'd say "at least I'm getting it all over with" but that implies a finite amount of "it".

[commodorified]

Christmas was quiet and fairly good, except that over the course of the afternoon it became obvious that I have a FILTHY cold.

I am now lying resentfully in bed drinking mint tea I cannot taste and being grumpy about missing Christmas II: This Time Someone Else Is Cooking with the inlaws and feeling guilty because I cannot help with getting Bogart his required amount of outdoors time when it is -20 and I have a fever. At least I can get him dressed for walks, which as I am The One Who Can Get His Boots On is quite useful.

I feel too crap to want to a) watch Dr Who or b) check out Yuletide, which is to say, very crap indeed.

But I have an electric blanket and a snoring dog and the awesome fairestcat made me tea and is heroically dealing with the dishes from last night's Roast Beast and trimmings.

Also I had allsorts and winegums for Boxing Day breakfast, washed down with Tylenol Sinus Cold and Flu.
I am happy with this choice.

Comments

[graydon]

Oh boo. So what you've really got is a weather-mediated requirement to put the boots on Bogart more often than usual.

Since it is Ottawa and from the current jet stream map everyone in Canada is living in an arctic climate zone for the foreseeable, wishing that this shall soon pass feels unwise. And Bogart doesn't seem to have the coat for getting inured to the cold, poor zoomy creature.

Maybe a doggy exercise wheel? Though those tend to need a lot of overhead clearance once the dog's larger than 20 pounds or so.

(I have childhood memories of the dog (a spaniel, shaggy for its kind, and delighted to tow my brother (whose dog they officially were) on cross country skis for hours at a time) flaked out next to the woodstove so completely motionless (the next day) you sort of felt compelled to turn them over so at least they'd toast evenly. And you could check that they weren't dead, because being turned over didn't cause a response.)

[commodorified]

I propose to teach him to tow the bike next summer, but as yet the best we can manage is walks on the longline, which allows him a fair amount of zoom without letting him endanger himself in traffic or get us busted by the bylaw when we can't take him to offleash areas.

[graydon]

The downside of towing the bike is that the bike happens at a time when there are no nice deep soft snowdrifts to plunge into when the unexpected lateral motions get to being too much.

I hope it goes really well; I hope Bogart's inclined to be that steady.

[commodorified]

Well, he's a remarkably fast learner and we've been doing the leash that attaches to the rear hub with good results.

It would definitely be fair to say he'll learn to pull a bike long before I learn to cross-country ski, alas.

I'm going to work on Left and Right and Hold on the long-line this winter.

[graydon]

Not every dog gets the concept of "proceeding in formation", so rear hub leash going well is an excellent sign!

Cross-country skiing is supposed to be intuitively obvious if one can skate, but I don't think this assertion is anywhere near as general as its proponents would have it be.