The other Zebra.

I awoke early before the alarm feeling much better and got out of bed ready to face the day. After the usual morning ablutions, I harnessed up the dogs and we went out for that first walk. We wandered around staying in the shade as much as possible and spotted Daniel coming across from his RV.  

He disappeared inside the Break Room, and we continued our walk to the dumpster then around the Break Room back to the area where we normally sit making a complete circle of the building. This gave the dogs time to do their thing before returning to the front door where we met Daniel. He had fixed me a coffee for which I was very grateful, and we sat and chatted for a while, and he mentioned that they were going to work at the school today. Malinda joined us but she did not have Remington with her as she was ready to go to work along with Daniel. 

We sat for another 5 minutes or so and they both jumped in her truck to go to work. I, on the other hand, started walking the park trying to find as much shade as possible.  

Yesterday, I found a new place to walk behind one row of RV’s which was both grassy and, in the shade, The only trouble was that because it was grassy, it was also covered in stickers and both dogs were having problems. I realized that although the shade was very welcome, the extraordinary number of stickers did not make this a good place to walk. We backtracked and got back onto the hard pavement which also brought us back out into the sun. Before we hit the lane leading to Hwy 290, both dogs spent 5 minutes digging the stickers out from their toes.

Then we walked the lane and followed it to the big Oak tree before turning back. Sandy did well in the heat as she dodged from one shady area to the next. Somewhere along the way, she had found a sticker and although I searched both of her front feet, I could not find it and she limped all the way back to the RV. 

With it being as hot as it is, it limits what we can get up to. The blog usually only takes a couple of hours leaving the rest of the time open to do whatever I want. The dogs are not very good at scintillating conversation, and I find that I am talking to myself most of the time. At least they cannot give me a smart-ass answer when I talk to them although both of them sometimes give me,”the look”.

I fixed the dogs breakfast mostly for Sandy’s sake so she will eat her medication and then made myself breakfast and tea as I had already drunk one coffee this morning. I turned my attention to the blog catching up with it almost to the current minute and looked around for other things to get up to.

It was nice and cool inside of The Caboose and I had no desire to venture out other than to walk the dogs. I wrote a poem about being a single man. I must have been feeling bitter or something to prompt that in the first place although, I have been single for so long that I wouldn’t know how to live with another person. Dogs, fine but a woman or even another man, no way. Besides, I am way too selfish. I quickly put that thought out of my head as there is no sense even considering such a thing ever happening. As I said before, I am way too selfish and really like my independence. 

I looked around for other things to get up to but could not really find anything else to do. At times like these, I resort to listening to an Audiobook which is what happened this time. I sat on the couch with a dog on either side of me, both fast asleep trying hard not to fall asleep myself as I listened. The story that I was listening to was a classic entitled, “All Quiet on the Western Front”. What made this book so interesting was that it told the story about the 1914-1918 world war from a German point of view and focusing of life in the trenches. 

The story came to an end, and I sat for a while just contemplating of the utter uselessness of war and how the Generals and such send the privates in to their certain death. It is always the little guy that suffers in times of war. Just so much cannon fodder. 

I shook myself out of my reverie and decided that I needed cheering up and the best way to do that was to take the dogs out walking. They are more than happy to oblige and after harnessing them up, we went out walking.  This time, we followed the shade as much as we could trying to stay on the blacktop roads because of the prickles. It was a tossup between hot tarmac and the stickers in the grass. Sandy chose the blacktop, and we wandered around for a bit and managed to walk a mile for the day which is not bad considering how hot everything is. 

Back at the RV as the evening drew in, we sat on the top deck only this time, I opened the sliding glass door, and I sat in the opening so I could feel the A/C as it leaked out. I sat there for a while before bringing in the bird feeders and putting everything away for the evening. The rest of the evening was spent in the usual way. 

Written 07/12/2023. Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com