Wednesday, September 9, 2020

The Arctic blast missed us

The smoky skies from California's wildfires continued today.  All the dogs wanted a morning walk, even Sadie, so off I drove to the maintenance road for the five-minute drive.  Once there, Minnie jumped out of the car, defecated, and wanted to hop back in the car.  She likes chilling on the blankets I have in the back of the Honda. I let her rest, allowing the other dogs and I to walk faster.  Sadie even had a nice trot going.  The pups chased after Sweetie and Zeke healed by my side.

The cold overnight temperatures that was sweeping down from Colorado t were forecasted for this morning never materialized.  A large Arctic blast lowered temperatures and brought snow for the Denver area.  That cool 53F I was hoping for was 67F instead; warm enough for just a t-shirt.  The mountain peaks were shrouded in fog but it didn't drizzle or rain.  I was wishing to see a cool autumn morning,.  That cold front instead moved father southeast of us, into Texas.

I turned around by the construction area as several workers in bright yellow safety vests were lingering.  Not wanting a confrontation with my dogs and them, I turned around, then walked east to the ruins.  This is the first time I have seen workers on that site and was curious what they were building.

We walked two miles.  The dead hawk we saw yesterday was still there but had been moved and placed on its back.  Its head had been chewed off.  The mountains and clouds were dramatic.  I will never tire of that view. The hazy orange-red sun rose behind low-lying clouds over the eastern mountains.  The smoke  didn't seem so bad in the morning, but I was wrong.  Walking in the morning gave me a headache once I got back home, and that headache turned into a minor migraine which I quickly treated with two aspirin.

Two hours later, in a quiet bedroom, I recovered and was able to join Susan on a hike around the field at noon.  I left Sadie and Minnie home since we would be exposed by the sun, but once at the trailhead, the 81F was warm and we ended up walking the river anyway.  We didn't wade in it, but the dogs were able to frolic in the water.

"It feels so different not having Minnie with us" confessed Susan.  I agreed.  Minnie, of all my dogs, loves the water and loves fetching.  Her goal is to always run down to the water and soak, with her wet head looking back at us for sticks flying her way.  I often stay by one water hole just to allow her to swim back and forth. The only dog that may fill her spot once she is gone is Hansel, but right now his obsession with wrestling with Gretel is his big goal.

The wind began picking up again while we were at the river, allowing us to walk the field as planned.  The Huachuca mountains were barely visible from our location.  When the sun was behind clouds it was cool, but the exposed sun warmed us too quickly.

My Facebook page was filled with photos of snow-capped mountains of Colorado and red skies over California  We never got that drama here.   It was more like an early-fall day. The setting sun was covered by clouds so we didn't have a redball effect.  It was a quiet day in the end that I finished with a  mile walk around the hood with the pups.
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Global cases 28,129,025
Global deaths 913,371
US cases 6,549,722 (+36,462)
US deaths: 195,245 (+1202)
AZ cases: 206,541 (+496)
AZ deaths: 5231 (+30)
IN cases 101485 (+705)
IN deaths 3297 (+17)

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