Life Marches On

We've had a deluge for the past few days, a huge contrast to the recent hot and dry weather that had the locals scanning the horizon for smoke plumes. I know that I should be grateful for the rain, but on this day, waking up to gray skies and rain was not what my spirit needed. Do you want to guess who showered me in canine love and helped me get moving? Yep, it was this girl - my gift.

On rough days, my motto is one pedal stroke at a time... just get on my bike and pedal into the mountains, and life will look better. It always works, at least to some extent.

We avoided the worst of the morning deluge by using the time-honored technique of procrastinating. When we finally exited the dry house, the world was still drenched so Shyla was quickly soaked. Then, to my delight, the sun shined for about 30 seconds between rain showers, just long enough for me to take one photo of Shyla in it.

Mother Nature had some beauty for me to discover. I spotted a bumblebee finding nectar on a Monument Plant (a.k.a., "Green Gentian"), a member of the Gentian family that lives as a leafy rosette on the ground for 50 years or so before its one big hurrah - the year that it sprouts to about 3' tall, blooms, and then dies. An exceptional number of Monument plants are blooming this year. The bees adore them.

Purple flowers are starting to take over the world as we progress through summer. These rain-drenched flowers caught my eye during our whole morning ride. They seem to be blooming everywhere.

After our ride, we headed into town for Shyla's socialization training. Wonderful R joined us to be a calming influence, after a rather long hiatus from training for Shyla. His presence helped her immensely. It especially helped her with meeting strangers. R has never seen a stranger who he didn't want to meet - and that attitude seemed to rub off on Shyla.

I feel like R is our link to the past - he knew and loved K - and now he's helping raise his little sister. That makes him a link in the chain from our past to our present. Recently, I've come to believe that R has become less of a cracker dog because he has felt the need to rise to the role of big brother for Shyla. I love the new noble R, although I also love seeing him go wild, every now and then!

Today, my heart has been with sweet K but I've also realized how much I've grown to love Shyla. K's unconditional love helped prepare me to be Shyla's rock. And, today, Shyla reversed the relationship, and she was my rock. Life marches on.