Okay...let's get to the Super Moms first. Since we moved here, Claudia and I take Tuck for two walks every day. In the morning, we usually walk in the Empire Mine State Park. This place is a gem and the miles of trails are beautiful....and sometimes steep. It has taken us nearly two months to get ourselves in good enough shape that we can now handle most of the steep hills without stopping (remember, we were in Florida for 15 years...think pancake flat). The first thing we noticed when walking these trails was that everyone was passing us. Everyone. Young people, old people (our age), old horses, young horses, old dogs, young dogs, squirrels...you name it. We quickly realized that a lifetime of walking these trails had gotten these folks into really great shape. But...we were getting better. We thought.
About once a week, while walking the main trail, we encounter what I will now call "Super Moms". Here's the scene....Claudia and I are struggling up the hill with Tuck leading the way. We're feeling pretty good because we're not stopping to catch our breath. And then....out of the forest and coming up the very hill we are on....here come two young moms (sometimes three) pushing fancy three-wheel strollers with their baby in tow. And....they're jogging. Of course they are. And...to add insult to injury...they're talking while they jog. Showoffs. And sometimes, to make us feel even worse, one or more may be pregnant. They're always nice and wave and say "HI" when they cruise past us. So far, none have stopped to ask if we're OK and need help. We're going to look for some trails too narrow for strollers. We'll show them.
We took our little buddy to the vet this week for a check up and to get him registered with a California vet. Most of you reading this don't know about our vet problems back in Florida. For the entire time we lived there, we never found an honest, caring, competent vet who wasn't totally driven by money to (quickly) pay off their student loans. So when we went shopping for a vet out here, we were more than a little worried. We did, however, know of one clinic nearby. When we were visiting last year, we found a dog wandering down the road and we stopped and saved her from an oncoming truck hauling a backhoe (yep...it was close). She had a collar with a tag and from that we identified the vet clinic. We took her there and the people were super nice. So...that's where we went. And what did we find? Remember the old TV show "Marcus Welby, MD" with Robert Young as the caring doctor? Well, Dr. Welby is alive and well in Grass Valley, CA. He simply resurfaced as a vet. Perhaps the Buddhists are right and there really is incarnation? Anyway, Dr. Nolette is a gem! Kind, caring, honest, thorough, smart and most important of all....not profit-driven. He actually retired once and came back because he missed being a vet. Who does that? He spent about 40 minutes with us and one of his assistants sat on the ground with Tuck the entire time petting him. Hooray....we've finally found the vet we've been looking for a very long time. And best of all....Tuck didn't even have to get a shot...but he did have to have a thermometer stuck in his butt (he hates it...who wouldn't). :-)
Last, but not least, it's time to discuss "fake swans". A little background is in order. Our rental house overlooks a small pond (for some reason, locals call them lakes) and a fairway of the 18th hole of a golf course. Canadian geese are everywhere. They're in the ponds, where they don't bother anyone, but they're also all over the golf course....where they bother almost everyone. They're slow to move, so the golfers have to shoo them away. But....and here's where the story gets interesting....the worse part is their poop. They poop everywhere. A pissed off circus elephant can't out-poop a goose. It's on the golf cart paths. On the greens. On the fairways. In short...little green piles are everywhere. And, once they find an area they really like, they don't fly back to Canada. I mean, why bother, right? Free food, a lake for water, nice people all around them who won't shoot them, plenty of places to roost. Life is good. Since this IS a golf course with paying members who don't like walking on green goose poop, the course managers try different methods of getting them to "move on down the road". Which leads me to the fake swans.
One morning last week, we're eating breakfast and looking out at the lake/pond. Hmmm.....the geese are gone. But there are four beautiful white swans sitting out on the water. We go about our day and that night while walking Tuck on the course, we notice that these are the calmest swans we have ever seen. They just float and make absolutely no noise. They don't move, just drift a little. The next day, we notice that the swans are in exactly the same spot as they were the day before. Yep....they're fake. Silly us...good thing we didn't mention to our neighbors that we loved the new swans. It turns out that one of the methods of getting geese to leave is to float fake white swans on the water. Apparently, swans are very territorial and when breeding, they're mean little mothers. They move in and the geese move out. At least that's the plan. We read up on this topic and found out that the trick only works for a limited time. Sooner or later, a brave goose floats up to the swan to say hello and realizes....this dude is made of plastic. What happens then we don't know, but I'm guessing the geese get really pissed off and come back with a vengeance...angry that they have been made fools of in front of all the golfers, squirrels, otters, fish and local birds. So far, as I write this, the trick is working. The swans are there and the geese are gone...at least they're not on the water. Stay tuned.
Cheers and thanks for reading!
Wayne, Claudia and Tuck