Sunday, December 21, 2008

Bouncy Black Dog

Well, 15 degrees didn't end up being that cold after all. It's a bit colder now and to top it off, I can't find anywhere to, well, do stuff that good dogs do outside. You see, I'm a picky dog. Like some who require a fire hydrant, I require a nice patch of grass. If you pay close attention to the following photos, you will find that there is a current grass crisis. Hence the look on my face in this photo.


Oh, and this is not a picture of me laying in the snow. I'm standing up, doggy paddling so that I won't drown in the stuff.


This is our neighbor's orchard. It's not currently producing fruit. CAUSE IT'S FROZEN!


Prayer flags and icicles. They go well together.


The top of the small one's head while she made me help her "groom" a skate ski track on the back 40. Said grooming was done by skiing around in a big oval with tele skis and skins on while bribing me to follow with delicious peanut butter treats. Delicious peanut butter treats sent to me by my good friends Cathy and Jim! Thanks you two! I love ya!


And finally, this is my impression of a snow plow.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

15 Degrees!


15 Degrees is not warm. Not unless you're from Antarctica. Then it's probably bordering on tropical. Here in Hood River, it is very very far from warm. The best part of it all is that when it is not warm, water turns into this white fluffy stuff my people call snow and I LOVE SNOW. We woke up this morning to quite a bit of the frozen liquid so we decided to wander around outside and enjoy it. Here are some photos we brought back from our exploration of the frozen world.







When it's really cold outside, I have to go very fast everywhere. Here I am going very fast.

And here is Jason just before he was hit in the head by what seems to have been a snow ball... MWAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!

Friday, December 5, 2008

The Black Hole

For your photographical entertainment my smaller person has made you this:

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Is this the end of my career as a Wiggly Black Dog Blogger? You decide.

We're home. Our job as the Trail Care Crew has come to an end and it couldn't have been better timing. We've been craving a real winter, time with friends and family, and a house but hadn't gotten to the point of burn out quite yet so here we are enjoying all but the winter. Two years was the perfect amount of time to travel around the world. We had amazing experiences, met many new friends and some people we'll look forward to forgetting, visited some of the most beautiful places and some places that we now know to avoid, learned many lessons, grew as a team, continued our passion for teaching (well, maybe my peeps more than me), discovered a new piece of the bicycling industry/world that we hope to stay a part of for years to come and most importantly, we loved every second of it. My favorite part was more of the eating, sleeping, swimming and running but I added all the other stuff cause my peeps told me to. So, now we've stopped moving sort of. Not to say that any of us have stayed in one place for more than an hour or so with the exception of sleeping but we're working on winding down, doing a little nesting, and enjoying a home. 

This is me before I was discovered on the camouflage smooshy chair where I am very much not allowed to be (apparently NOT very camo due to my being discovered on it! I'm returning that to the manufacturer and demanding a refund!).

And here I am explaining that it was a simple misunderstanding. "I thought you said stay off the futon! I didn't realize that you were including other furniture in that rule. I am deeply apologetic and hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me as I lay here on the hard hard wooden floor, cold and alone." How could you be mad at that shmoopy sad face? It always works. I sit on the couch, they kick me off, they feel bad, I get treats. Suckers!

So, you might ask "what are you going to do now?". I don't know what I'm going to do. It's really up to you. If you'd like I can keep writing stories because really, there's all sorts of exciting stuff going on here or I could stop and spend more time eating, swimming, running and sleeping. Heck, I might even pick up a new hobby and try fetching frisbees (the whole bringing them back thing doesn't sound so good though). If you want me to keep blogging post a comment. If you want me to stop blogging, keep it to yourself! I can't take that sort of criticism.

My peeps on the other hand will be jumping into their new positions with IMBA Trail Solutions doing a whole lot of trail design, consulting, education and advocacy work in lots of different places with different groups, and land management agencies. They'll still be traveling but based out of Hood River and not on the road as much. The travel will be longer term so they'll visit a project for a few weeks instead of a few days and each project will be bigger than what they've been doing every week for the past two years. They're working for the same organization but changing positions so that a new couple can have the experience that they did and they can settle down a little. Capiche?

Cast your vote... more WBD?