It's a Portland Day

It is very much a Portland day.  The sky is bright blue without any hint of clouds, and the sun is strong. It's not " another day in Paradise," cause we're not in Key West...Today is  Portland Day even thought I find myself in New York. The sky is really blue and the sun  is really shining bright and I'm not at work courtesy of the Jewish holidays....I wonder what they are doing in Maine....

We,  nuclear family consisting of Arnie, Kate, Lile, Grandma Dot and Miss Murray, spent a great week on Chebeague in a new house that we rented. The Crapsers decided not to rent this year We were all cautious optimistic albeit nervous and also sure it would be terrible. We had references for Miss Murray and for ourselves it would seem but change is tough even for adults...But the new house while not warm according to my lights had the advantage of a great screened in porch where we spent virtually all our time. I don't think I realized what an interactive spot a porch can become. You see people passing by and they see you. You wave. You hope you are fully clothed. Miss Murray sees people walk by and she goes nuts. That was the big problem: She morphed into testosterone watch dog....

She was active and happy until Wednesday of that week when we decided to take her with us to a beach that Lile and Kate had found. So we saddled up Miss Murray and put her into Kate's care as we biked off to this beach destination. Murray has a habit of stopping suddenly and so Kate took on the challenge as we set off and arrived happily at a really nice beach which was the site of a 4th of July celebration some years ago. That was the year that Kate had head lice. It's just a nice personal note.
I thought Murray was limping but then it seemed to stop. So we sat for a while and then headed back to the house. I am now calling it the Bataan death march because it was a 7 mile walk for a dog who walks only 4 blocks and every other weekend goes to Central Park to run off some energy. She is not in good marathon shape or used to walking on concrete. Shame on us. So Murray gently lay down on Wednesday and really wasn't herself until Friday. She had done some damage to the pads of her feet and we applied bacetracin and mushers wax,  and beat ourselves up for being bad dog mothers.  We didn't let her go far or visit the beach because she was really out of it until Friday  when she began to be her old self again....

Then poor puppy we put her in the car and brought her right back to New York. Next summer we will know how to better schedule her exercise.

We are back in the Ring Cycle of School Days which seem to be going pretty well. I am learning how to edit my responses to everything with these words: Bummer or Whats Up with That?

It's a Portland Day.....