Whatever happened to sleep? Since Disco cruised so placidly into our lives, I have had my sleep interrupted at least hourly by Disco's crying, jumping up on the bed, dog scratching frantically at the door to get out (or just to watch me launch out of bed, stumble over, and excitedly say, "PEE? You wanna PEE? OUTside? You wanna PEE???), and then turn in a circle reassured, and return to her crate while I return blearily to bed, too tired to be properly irritated. Last week I went racing downstairs to let her out, but in the darkness, managed to slam into a chair barricade between kitchen and living room, and saw stars. Ouch. My kneecap is still the colour of overripe tomatoe. But you know- at this point, she's almost totally house-broken, so it's all worth it.
This last weekend was definitely memorable. We trucked all the way up to Silent Lake for some camping; two women, two dogs. Foolishly envisioned was days of sunshine and relaxation, Disco's first canoe ride, and some quiet times around the campfire. Instead, we had rain, cloudy skies threatening rain, and more rain. We had two crazy dogs who couldn't stand to be tied up for 5 minutes without howling, getting tangled up in trees, in each other, or wrapping themselves around tent or tarp poles. Fun fun! And oh, the fun we had with tarps.
I decided that there would be no fooling around with wet dogs and people all weekend, so I added to my beautiful nylon tarp and two 8x10' Canadian Tire blue tarps. I picked up a 20x28' tarp to add to the collection, plus some extra extension poles, rope and pegs. Our camping neighbours watched in amazement as our campsite turned royal blue, and looked like Spiderman had swung from the sky and splattered our site with white webbing. But it worked. Well, it also collapsed one night under the accumulated weight of water, but having been awakened by the snickering of (jealous) neighbours, we quickly propped it back up.
We enjoyed our drizzly evenings with a roaring fire, semi-dry dogs and people, citronella torches and lamps (my trusty headlamp), and a cribbage board. We ate well, we drank moderately, and with the dogs at our feet (briefly) and all the extra towels, we managed to stay fairly warm at night too.
We did get in some hiking (and getting lost in the woods- our weekend ritual), and we did manage the canoe ride thing- with Disco lashed to one of the canoe supports and basically unable to jump overboard, and Dallas left to race along the shoreline trail and in and out of the lakes behind, beside and in front of the canoe when the trail diverged from the water or became impassable. She had a blast, and loved this new game of keep up with the canoe-kids. She's been unconscious ever since.
I've been in pain ever since. Too many trips to our walk-in site with bags of wood, too many trips back and forth to the car, and too much canoe lifting.
Now I'm back at work, and basically asking myself why I'm not in the woods more often than almost every weekend. I picked up another Bike magazine at lunch and have been ogling again the amazing backdrop of the NorthShore in Vancouver- a dream I want to live some day. Gorgeous dark greens, beckoning ramps and ladders, huge obstacles. . . I dream of heavier suspensions and weekend trips to Whistler...
