Thrown off your game

It's been an odd day.  At 8:30 at night, I feel the best course of action is to sleep, but seeing as how I'm not even remotely tired, here I am.  I've been trying to think of a good way to describe what this day's been like, and I think the title says it all, I've just been thrown off my game.  It happens.

Even at six o'clock this morning, I was miserable.  It was so humid that even the short 15 minute walk we take in the mornings left me feeling like I was outside on the hottest day and standing in the sun.  I spent the rest of the morning trying to cool off and not feel like I was in a sauna.  So I dressed appropriately for the weather- summer clothes.

You'd think this would make sense, right?  Well...you'd be wrong.  The health department, which always reaches ridiculously warm temperatures during the summer, was ice cold.  I had goose bumps for most of the morning.  That'll teach me to try and stay cool!  Way to throw me off my game.

Being that it's still summer, you'd think it would still be sunny in South Carolina.  But courtesy of some super tropical air sent to us via Issac, it's been cloudy and rainy all day.  As you can imagine, to a person with my background, cloudy and gray = Northeast Ohio during winter.  I think my body temporarily tried to go into hibernation mode.  At lunch, I ended up falling asleep halfway through trying to eat my salad.

Then, I had to think what I wanted for dinner.  Still inside, still cold and seeing nothing but gray skies, nothing sounded better than good old comfort food.  Too bad I didn't have any macaroni noodles.  But c'est la vie, I settled on a meat and potato combo, with plans to make biscuits as well.  Flash forward to 6:00 p.m., and there I was, once again having just finished a walk, once again feeling like I just walked out of a sauna (Because the dew point is STILL near 75, and the humidity level is STILL in the upper 90s).  But now, instead of my normal, light, summer fare, I was staring down some hearty winter food.  Even my stomach was thrown off its game.  Oh, and the next two days are forecast to be the same as today.  Going to be a great week!

I'm not the only one off my game though.  Curled up at my feet in the tiniest little ball he can manage is my 70lb Golden Retriever/German Shepherd mix.  The dog the maintenance guy has told me, "Is scary and growls and barks the entire time I'm in your place doing maintenance work," has been traumatized today.  First it was the glass guy, who came to replace my shattered patio window.  Cooper does not like strangers, let alone male strangers, being in his place when I'm not home (But when I'm home, anyone who enters the door is his best friend, including the very maintenance guys he barks at!)  So, the trauma of "stranger danger" was enough to drive him to the edge, and the little house fly that has been buzzing his head was enough to send him into madness.  He's been running through the house, simultaneously biting the air in an attempt to get the fly, and running to avoid being near the fly when it lands.  It's going to be a long night.

So here's to hoping this weather clears up and I can return to my normal, happy, sunny life where the dog isn't running into furniture while trying to avoid an insect.  Amen.

My dog and the ocean.

His brown eyes grew large with fear, and with five large, bounding steps he covered the distance between us in two seconds.  He ran behind me and began to drag me towards the pier.  So much for my big, brave dog.  

In the five years that I've had Cooper, I've not known him to be afraid of the water.  He likes to run through the large puddles we get here at Martins Creek after a hard rain, he was ridiculously happy to leap and bound through the Edisto River.  When we went to the dog park, he ran laps around the little pond and then turned into "Swamp Dog" as he attempted to wade through the murky water.  When we were in Ohio, we went to Silver Creek a few times to play "fetch," and he would run around for hours with his "happy dog smile" on his face.  Even at bath time, he will willingly jump in the shower, even though it's not his favorite thing.

So yesterday, when I was looking for something fun to do, the beach came to my mind.  I like walking on the beach, he likes water, so it must be perfect, right?  Bright and early yesterday morning, we got up and got ready to head to Isle of Palms.  The perfect car dog sat quietly and patiently in the back seat and slept as we drove.  Forty-five minutes later, we were getting out the car and walking towards the water.  

When we got to the beach, I figured I'd slowly introduce Cooper to the idea of the ocean.  He had other plans though, and ran towards the retreating water at full speed.  He made it to the end of his leash about the time the next wave was coming towards us.  For three seconds he had enjoyed jumping in the shallow water, but as that wave came in, it became apparent that Cooper was not an ocean-loving dog.

After his initial visit with the waves, I was able to coax him back towards the water.  So long as the waves didn't touch his feet, he was happy.  I wasn't about to call it quits after only five minutes, so I drug Cooper along, and we started walking up the beach.  

Since I prefer to walk in the shallow water, Cooper was stretched to the end of his ten foot leash, trying desperately to stay in the dry sand.  The beach was growing more crowded as time passed, so more than once I had to reel him in so that he didn't disrupt passing bikers, fellow walkers, kids playing in the sand, and other dogs.  Whenever I pulled him towards me in the water, he eyed the incoming waves with great caution.  Each time the tiny remnants of a wave came anywhere near him, he would leap at least two feet in the air, so as to clear the foam coming in on the wave. 

Thirty minutes later, we turned back and headed towards the pier, our starting point.  About halfway back we came across a couple and their yellow Lab, who was very happy to see Cooper.  After a few seconds of conversation, we let the dog's leashes go slack and the dogs ran towards each other.  Sniffing ensued, and after determining that neither was a threat, they began "play bowing" to each other and started to run around.       The Lab was clearly a fan of water, and he immediately ran into the water and jumped into the waves.  Cooper lay down on the sand, clearly dejected that his new friend had left him, but not about to go anywhere near the water.  After we laughed at the dogs, Cooper and I continued on down towards the pier.  

Our initial trip to the beach could be classified as somewhat of a failure.  On the one hand, my plans to play with the dog in the water did not happen.  On the other hand, the dog was thoroughly exhausted by the endeavor and slept for four hours when we got home.  I'm hoping that in the future, he'll at least be willing to let the water touch his feet.  Baby steps.

Speaking of the dog, as he is now in front of the patio door whining to go out and see Cyrus (a neighbor's ridiculously friendly dog), it is time to leave once again.  Have a great week!