Out of Focus...

...is his natural state. Not to mention mine. But I liked this dreamy picture of my dog (sorry Scribbler...at least it's not a flower) who is anything but! The only alternative for today was a picture of a rock....

Our friend Dan came over with his night vision camera which he and John set up in hopes of capturing a ground squirrel emerging from its burrow. I'm not quite sure what that will prove but perhaps they are hoping that the ground squirrels have been vanquished and some other creature is living in there! I suspect what they may get is a lot of pictures of Spike, but we'll see....

It's been a very quiet day as John struggles to regain his momentum after so many weeks of inaction. His approach to this dilemma seems to be to take a nap...never my solution as I don't seem to be constitutionally capable of falling asleep during the day unless I am ill....

We managed what, for me, was a very brisk walk with Spike. It definitely helps to keep his attention on me rather than every single distraction in the neighborhood if we walk quickly, not my habitual speed but better exercise. The question is, who's training whom, but He does seem to be getting the message at least when we stick to the usual boring circuit. In another role reversal, John brought up the rear and Spike and I had to wait for him...a good opportunity to practice 'sit' (not John but Spike).

It is distressing to read about the horrible flooding in Europe as we sit here wishing it would rain. When Dana and I were hiking through the Alps many years ago, we arrived in a town where there was quite a substantial army presence including helicopters and soldiers with firearms. I asked at our hotel what was going on and was told 'because our president is visiting'. Either my French wasn't up to the challenge or their English wasn't up to a full explanation, which was that the president was there because there had been a dam failure upriver from the town and an entire village had been inundated. We didn't find this out until we arrived in San Moritz via an inexplicably rerouted bus trip and read the International Herald Tribune which we purchased at the train station. John, back in Berkeley knew about this but we were right there and hadn't a clue....

My thoughts are with all who are affected....