Well, it’s been awhile. Not because anyone is hurt, or I’ve suddenly had a change of heart and despise mushing and/or dogs, or because I’ve gotten bored with the blog or forgotten about it, but just because… there’s not much new under the sun.  The blazing hot searing sweltering sun, that is. Until things cool down, scootering is on a bit of a hiatus. When I get up at unnaturally early hours of the day and it’s still 80F by 7 am, it’s just way too hot and humid for that much exertion.

Besides, there are only so many pictures of dog butts that can be posted. Having said that, I got a new camera and got some pictures I quite like on some of our early morning outings:

And this lovely video, which is not titled “fbomb.mov” for nothing. Turn off your sound if your ears will be offended.

But when I see this kind of stuff after a run, it makes me a bit concerned about the heat:

So, we find other things to do. I tried bikejoring with Squash, on the grounds that he doesn’t have to pull as hard with me biking as with me riding the scooter.

I have tried bikejoring with Maisy before and she made her feelings on the matter quite clear: She loathes it. She actually loathes the scooter, as well, but she loves scooterING enough to tolerate its presence. Not so with the bike. In front of the bike, she just stands with a mournful, feelings-broken-into-a-million-tiny-shards expression, peering mournfully back at the bike like it might come to life and bludgeon her to death at any moment, steadfastly refusing to move. If I start biking, she will wait until the bike almost reaches her before scurrying ahead and stopping until it almost reaches her again and then scurrying ahead and stopping until… well, you get the picture. So. I don’t bikejor with Maisy. We’ve had to mostly stick to leash walking since she’s too iffy with stranger danger dogs to go to any off leash areas. It’s kind of a boring bummer and doesn’t lend itself to taking many pictures, but it is what it is and it won’t be forever. But here’s a picture of her in the backyard that I like quite a bit:

Squash did ok with bikejoring. He was a bit bewildered at first but he did eventually kind of get the hang of it. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very good pictures since my camera was mounted at scooter height instead of bicycle height – hopefully I’ll get the hang of that, too.

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, we’re playing in the street. Until he got the hang of it, he just wanted to sniff and pee on the sidewalk, so keeping him in the street where there was nothing to sniff or pee was the only way for me to keep him on track. This was mid-morning on a quiet street, so… judge me if you feel you must but we were safe.

Unfortunately, after only two bikejor attempts I felt like the heat was a bit too much even for this level of exertion. So. We’ve mostly been going on walks, although I’ve started introducing Squash to the off leash dog park thusly:

 

 

 

He’s a fan, and it’s good exercise. We also went camping this week and did a lot of hiking:

 

 

 

So, a bit of this and a bit of that will hopefully get us through the summer. As I’m writing this, we’re experiencing a short break in the extended heat wave that is the summer of 2012, so maybe we’ll be able to sneak some scootering in this weekend. If not, hopefully you’ve gotten your fix of Maisy and Squash pictures for now.