Dallas needs help to stand up, and every stair I go up brings a sharp pain to my lower back. Ouch. Today we are contented, happy physical wrecks. I think my happiest moment of the weekend was when I tricked Dallas to get onto the kayak, turned her around (don't ask me to describe how this was accomplished), and we went paddling up the Freddy Channel, just in front of the cottage. Dallas was so happy to be perched up there, and cooperated in not jumping off onto the nearby rock outcrops. We beached at one rocky point, having worked up a little sweat, and then we jumped into the current, and starting swimming upstream.
I expected Dal to fall back, since she doesn't like being too far from shore, but she kept pace, stayed right at my shoulder, and kept one eye on me, with the biggest doggy grin I've ever seen from her. She was just beaming at me, getting exactly the kind of one on one attention she craves so much. We went far, and randomly, I'd push her away and start splashing at her, but she'd just turn around, and come right through all my splashing until she was literally on top of me, and I had to swim away again. Finally, she headed back to shore, and ran along the rocks, but it wasn't long before she hurled herself back in and caught up with me again. Happy happy times. Have I ever mentioned how much I love my dog?
The rest of the weekend passed with canoeing, swimming, kayaking, sunning ourselves on Splash Island, and lots of reading, cards, and napping. It was probably the best Labour Day weekend I remember. The weather held the whole time too- not too hot, not too cold. The water stayed a comfy 75 degrees, and everyone spent lots of time splashing around. Aaahhh... I needed that.
A close second would have been downhilling at Blue Mountain with Andrew & co., but I didn't even hear about that plan 'til I got back last night. Apparently, Andrew's buddy took a nasty header at a drop-off, and ended up on his back, with the marks of a tree-stump all across his chest. This story validates my decision to rent full chest armour every time I go. Anyway, now I'm jealous I didn't get to go, and am scheming when I can do this. Of course the fun of bombing down a course with occasional end-overs and whoopsie-doos conflicts with staying healthy and building stamina... Maybe for now, focussing on the trainer is best.
Back to work. Decisions made last week plus a full project load mean that I'll have my work cut out for me for a little while. I knew when I came in this morning I was going to hear something I wouldn't like. So, what I'd call big project risk just got added, with no additional time allowance. Erk. I'm going to sit here and avoid grinding my teeth by doing a whole bunch of administrivia.
My day has been made somewhat better by a) receiving a whole bag of cherry tomatoes from a generous co-worker with an overflowing garden (no, that is not a euphemism for anything), and b) on reading how CarrytheOnes got scared of serial killers on the beach when there were scorpions and wild dogs circling the tent.
