Routine? What routine?

With work reaching the frazzle point and the record heat (106 on Tuesday!) of this week our routine has been shot.

Yesterday evening Houdini dog achieved an elaborate escape from the yard. She greeted the girls as they arrived home and then almost ran into traffic. Scruffy, confused, stood at the gate and barked.

Padimus was so proud of herself..."See, how clever I am." She came into the house and wanted to be praised, but instead received the ignominy of the crate. Scruff happily trotted into the house and into his crate. He seems to be very happy there and it is his only consistent "trick" (and he does not bark when crate-bound).

DH growled, "I thought we got Scruffy to keep Paddy company and in the yard. It does not appear to be working."

We were all exhausted and could not muster the energy to take even the shortest walk. Apparently it is a bad idea to walk pets for more than 10 minutes in the heat. So, I guess no harm, no foul.

Everyone overslept this morning and so at 6:00 we now wait patiently for a very very short walk if the temperature drops below 90 before it is pitch black. Or, if I get my second wind, we will drive to the park along the creek and wade. It would be lovely to splash a bit - provided there is no duck chasing.

Stay tuned...

8:35 p.m. Wednesday

OK. We were impatient. It was still 99 at 7:45 and we just thought we needed a ramble...and the water would cool us down a bit...

So we borrowed DH's car (yup...you know. There is junk in my car and no room for two pups) and headed to Nolan Creek.

The park was busy, but a couple of parking places were available. We only needed one...

We went as directly as we could to the water. The irresponsible pet owner did have to scrounge around for litter to pick up after one excited pet, but we left the place better than we found it.

There are many places to get in the water and we tried a couple of them.  One is upstream of the foot bridge. It was deserted (as no parent wants a kid getting caught in the minimal current and dragged through the culvert - it is a bad thing to teach 'em for the floods will come and the culverts pose a real hazard). The dogs didn't swim, but they waded in and cooled off. Then I was cooled by the dog shake. I will have to try and capture that on film, but I had no help today and it was all I could do to contain the pups.

An amazing number of dragonflies and maiden flies scoot around the water and greenery on the banks.

The creek bed is gravelly, but it is not a real gravel or pebble bottom - the creek is lined with fossilized shells. As kids we called them devil's toenails, but I am sure there are many different types of fossils present. The dogs don't really care to do any rock hunting and I do not stop to pick any up. Scruff and Paddy are more interested in the people milling around in the park...the girl on the scooter, the boy bouncing a basketball, the family running and especially the family eating on the gravel-bar near the bridge.

We tried another dip in the water and found perch swimming. At one point Scruff put his head entirely underwater. I don't know if he was trying to see the fish better or if he just loves water, but he looked at me as if to say, "What?"

I think I project my sarcastic and disrespectful attitude on my sweet dogs. Really - they just want to smell things and track and get a treat now and then, no?

After our last dip we wandered back to the car and headed home. We expect to enjoy a few more of these creek trips - especially when the lazy do not rise early enough for the morning hike.