My PET Peeve

You can get mad at me if you want.  This is still America, after all.  If you are someone doing this, I'm sure your intentions are pure. However, here is my PET Peeve:

Walking your dog on a leash

while riding your bike ... 

It's good exercise for you both, you say? It's good exercise for  the dog, the first minute or two and I'm sure your doggie is excited to go along because dogs love to walk and they love to please.  BUT, they can't tell you when they're winded or tired or have a pricker in their pad.  It's easy for us humans to say, "I rode my bike three miles today."  What about your poor puppy?  And I often see it down here in Florida, when the sidewalk is so hot, you couldn't walk barefoot without getting blisters. How about your precious critter?

If I can bring relief to one dog, at least, with this post, I'm happy.

Off We Go!

 

Here is our Abby.  She loves to go bye-bye in the car in her car seat.  We introduced her to biking the other day and she loves that, too.  Wearing her harness and strapped in the basket, she didn't try to jump out once!  If she stood up, I stopped the bike and told her to sit, which she did.

Now all I need to do is find a doggie helmet with ear holes.

 

 

                         Note the shredded bath towel, courtesy of the cat, on which Abby sits.

 

Space Found

Our family motto is No Space Unfilled.  Is it because we are unable to pass up a sale, we are old and, thereby, have accumulated much or that we are packrats? Some or all may apply, but whatever the reason, at Stately Martha Manor, we kept my bike in the front hall. How many times did we catch our clothes on the handlbar sticking out or the cat, after sitting on the seat, pushed off from the seat, knocking the bike over. And I recall when the downed bike blocked the front door and it was raining and the power was out and the garage door wouldn't open and we got all wet because we'd been on a stroll and we couldn't get in and as we peeked through the windows seeing the cats all warm and toasty... So after we recovered from walking phenomia...


Note bike in top left of photo.
 Oh happy day!



We cleaned our garage!  You don't get it. I mean, we really did clean our garage! We donated many things we no longer needed and now there is room to walk beside the Graciousmobile while it is in the garage. That is unheard of, in our universe. (Notice I'm saying our as opposed to my universe.  Bruce had a broken hammer handle that was taking up more than its fair share of room, so I must include him.)  Bottom line, it came to me at three o'clock in the morning.  Would my bike fit along the wall by the craftshow tent and betweeen the cooler, dragon kite, nylon fish whirly-gig and in front of the sheets of hurricane window- cover plywood?  By jingo, it did!!  It does!  Granted, when pulling the car into the garage, one must exercise caution lest the handle bar rakes the side of the vehicle, but I have experience caution a time or two in my life of flying feet and fingers.

The question is, do I immediately fill the voided space in the front hall with something like the double stacked pine chests in the bathroom or the handmade wooden three legged stool or the flowerdy Bear Chair? Well for now, the space is UNFILLED!   Can't imagine how long it will remain as such but it feels like the house has doubled in size and as

Martha Bear™ says,  "That's a better thing!"

http://www.marthabear.com/ -teddy bear stories for the whole family