Yoo 591 - Limber Tail

We tried to give pups the best day of his life a couple Saturdays ago, and ended up giving him a limp tail.

I first noticed it when I took him out the next morning. His tail looked fine for a couple inches then drooped down. Like he couldn't control it. I thought it was broken and started to panic.

My poor dog!

Further prodding and some googling revealed that it was more likely "limber tail syndrome" and would clear itself up in a few days.

Not as drastic or expensive but still uncomfortable.

So, note taken. Excessive exercise and swimming in cold water can wreak havoc on tails.

We had a fun day though. Trail run in the morning...with Greg even! He's been working out. And then a long walk on the extended Riverwalk Trail...with a swim. And finally, the dog park. Maybe a bit overkill, but that's what Saturdays are for.

Sundays are for limp tails and sore-leg staggers.

Anyways, I have this idea and I want one of these:

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Granted, it might be cooler if it were a side car and my dog was wearing goggles and a scarf, but it's a good start.

I'm thinking a long-distance bike trek. I'll pull pups and Greg can pull a cart with all our camping gear. How fun would that be?

But first I think one of these would also be necessary:

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Tire out dork dog first and then he can happily sit in the bike carrier with his goofy face and tongue hanging out.

Do you want an update on the mouse situation? There have been 2! It pains me that lethal actions were required and they didn't just move out on their own. But there's definitely at least a third one and he's smart. Licks the peanut butter off the trap every night without getting caught.

Is it weird that I noticed these mice shortly after purchasing the "Mouse Trap" game at Goodwill?

In final news, I'm depressed that the Olympics are over. Two and a half years till Rio! Doesn't 2016 seem unreal? I still haven't gotten used to 2014.

Have a great day :-)

Yoo 206 - A Friday Afternoon At Work...Skipped

Bear had veteran's day off.  I found out on Monday.  It was a brief texting conversation.  And after I relayed that I'd be willing to take some time off too, he texted me one of the most brilliant ideas he's had to date:

"We should bike the mission trail."

Ok!

I'd visited the San Antonio missions before but actually biking mission trail had been on my hit list for a while.  Actually, I wanted to find out if there was indeed a trail to bike because I had my doubts.  I hadn't heard anybody talk about it who had actually done it (except Bear, but really, he was only 12 when that happened, and how reliable could his 12-year-old brain 14 years later be?  I needed to see for myself...).

So I sent off my out of office email, worked really hard all Friday morning (end of year performance evaluation, ugh) and hop-skipped-jumped out to my car at one o'clock.  See ya!

It was a beautiful day weather-wise and I was so excited to not be cooped up in the office!  Though I can't complain about the beautiful view of San Antonio that I have from my new desk...

First stop:  Mission Concepcion.  Talked to the ranger, found out there is a trail, but it's a mess.  I guess there's an initiative to rebuild it from Mission Concepcion on south.  So the trail was a no-go but she highlighted a nice route on a map for us and we were on our way.

It was an easy bike ride south to Mission San Jose (mostly following Mission Rd).  The traffic wasn't bad (especially for a Friday afternoon), there was a bike lane most of the way, and the neighborhoods were colorful (and not in the "colorful" way, but in the "kind of cute and unique and fun to look at" way).  Mission San Jose is pretty big and I think has the most structure remaining of the four.  Lots to look at there.  And it's where the USAA band does one of their spring concerts every year (fun night...you should go!).

Another nice park ranger at Mission San Jose directed us on the route down to Mission San Juan.  This was my favorite leg of the bike ride.  It took us down more quiet, scenic streets, past a really colorful graveyard (seriously, every single one of the hundreds of grave sites was covered in all sorts of bouquets...it was like it was right around Dia de los Muertos on the Hispanic side of town or something...wait...yeah, that was it), and right by an airport!  (more on that later).

(Helmet hair.  Represent!)

After a short picnic of peanut-butter jelly sandwiches, sweet potato chips (new fav), and turkey jerky, we hit the road again for Mission Espada.  I lied above, because, this was actually my favorite part of the ride.  We were really out in the boonies at this point driving on what seems like country roads.  Tree-lined part of the way even!  Can't beat that in San Antonio.  The sun was lower in the sky at this point so the greens were really vibrant against the blue sky and it was just gorgeous.  Mission Espada is, I think, the prettiest mission remaining and we spent more time walking around there.  Plus, there was a wedding going on...call us creepers but it made for some fun people watching!

Can that please be a fireplace??  I claim this corner.

From Mission Espada, we decided to ignore the park ranger's advice to take the "safer" road back (Villamain Rd - the one we had just come down from Mission San Juan) and instead curve around on Espada road to head back to see the aqueduct.  Bear and I nicknamed this the bumpity-bump-bump street because that's what we were singing as we bumpity-bump-bumped along (to the tune of Frosty the Snowman....I think it's the chorus part??).  I dared him to spit as we crossed the bridge over 410 but he wouldn't do it.  He's too nice...

The Espada aqueduct is puh-rit-ee.  Not a lot to see but it's a nice little park and I really wished we had saved our picnic for there (though, lets get real, I wouldn't have made it that long...I was hungry before the trip even started). 

Ok, the really best part of the trip?

Airplanes!

The route takes you all around the Stinson airport, which is really small, but really fun.  There's a flying school there and we watched several planes practice touch-and-go landings all afternoon.  Plus, we realized we were riding along part of the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll marathon route, which is being run this Sunday.  Kind of jealous of those runners...it's a great route!

After the airport, we leisurely (ok, I thought it was leisurely but Bear just accused me of not know the definition of leisurely...) re-traced our route back up Mission Road to Mission Concepcion and got there with about an hour to spare before the sun went down.  All in all, the adventure took us just shy of 3 hours.  It was really easy riding and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  

And, on the way back, I decided I want to be on a lamppost banner someday.

Have a great day :-)