Happy misses Arlo's Graduation

As you may know or you may not I live on a 35 foot sailboat in San Pedro with a German Shepherd who may be seven months old since he does not have a green card I am never certain. People always ask me how old Happy is and I often lie about his age. He could be seven months or almost one year old. This doesn't really matter as he continues to grow, eat, bark and poop.

Arlo and his Momma

My grandson finished the 8th grade and as the media is the message I saw him on my smart phone.

Some where I have a picture of Arlo taking a bath but I not posting it.

Butts makes a good pillow

The marina here provides free wifi but right now the bandwidth is so slow I have to resize all the pictures from my phone to post anything on my blog. 

A Nose is a Nose not a Rose

I like the price of free but several user here at the marina would rather pay for a DSL so they have reliable service and a connection that works. My Samsung Galaxy S6 phone has unlimited text and data from the mother fuckers at AT@T who often kill my speed if I use the data, During the last part of May the fuckers kept limiting my data and Instagram basically quit. 

Bat man ears

Today the sun came up without the normal June gloom which was a surprise. Happy's bladder control is no longer pupply like and he doesn't have to get off the sailboat in the dark and he waits to hear the weatherman on the telly before he ventures out.

Homeless during dogwalk
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During our morning walks and afternoon strolling we encounter various homeless folks. Happy has been prone to bark at these people.  The dog likes to bark at strangers and skateboarders too.

As seen along harbor

Puppy likes to sit in the car and doesn't care if we go for a car ride if we are getting food from the ghetto's Vons or our favorite Center Street Market. I prefer to ride a bicycle to the store but he can't follow. 

One less softball

It is hard for me to leave the boat with the dog by himself and expect to find things not chewed. He does do it everyday but only when you think he is being good.

Homeless with blanket in laharbor

Dog Walking

It starts every morning before sunrise our routine of getting the dog off the boat and taking care of business. All dogs need a job. Happy's job is too whine and bother me. According to the experts petting a dog is good for seniors and lowers their (the two legged) blood pressure.

Happy sitting next to dock box

Happy is allowed to make his own decisions most of the time. He has to wait for me to remove the drop boards so he can exit the cabin. The cabin ladder has four rungs and one extra step and he does very good but needs a little assistance starting the climb up.

\GSD as a Cone head

After he gets up the ladder he goes into the cockpit then climbs over the side board and jumps on to the dock where I have placed a carpet and a horse blanket for his landing target. Then as I cuss I remove myself and look for him. There are small crabs that live on the rocks and they also live on the docks and Happy searches for them. 

My Oakley hat and glasses

The first walk in the morning last about a half of an hour. Then we go back on the sailboat for breakfast. Happy has kibble steamed rice and what meat I cooked the previous night.  After he has been refueled we start out for another walk. Our directions are limited because the main channel in LA Harbor blocks us from going east toward Terminal Island.

Hidden galaxy next to my sailboat

So we either head towards the beach which is a mile away or the closest park where he loves to chase the swallows or walk around the harbor.

Playing with friends

As Happy has gotten older he loves to bark at strangers and sometimes I really can't figure what the hell he is barking at. We have foxes and coyotes and this morning he must has seen one behind a screened fence and he kept barking at the fence. All of the marinas have lots of dumpsters and the closest park lots of trash cans so all day long people are picking the beer cans and plastic bottles and walking or riding their skateboards or bicycles with their booty catch. One very old frail and small woman that seems at times hardly able to walk collects the recycleables and this morning Happy started barking at her. She sat on a bench on Miner Street and waved back to us. An hour later in our walk she was still going strong but slow. 

Epic Mag as seen during dog walk

The dam dog the last two days doesn't want to stay in his bed in the cabin and yesterday he pulled out most of the stuffing out of his bed. Luckily he has two beds. 

morning nap

But when I finally get him to go to bed he sleeps for several hours. My Samsung Phone has a tracking app that recorded how far I walk. Saturday we walked eight miles. I used to use Map My Ride for that but it became too anal a project. The last time I checked it was Sunday but at time I am not often sure what day of the week it is. My watch (Garmin with GPS) and my smart phone display the time and date but I just look at the parking lot and if there are lots of cars it must me a weekend or holiday. 

Growing Pains

I have a friend Pat that has a Labradoodle. Pat and Karma would walk with Dede my former first mate that passed in her sleep on the boat after 14 years of faithful service and Dede and Karma would play several times a week. So without Dede I didn't do much dog walking. Most dog walkers have a regular route and a schedule. After Smarty Pants Frances (AKA) The Bean or simply Beanie bought me a puppy I started to start looking around for Pat and Karma but never saw the two out walking.

Hansome Happy posing

Finally two weeks ago I saw them and Happy got to meet them. Karma was larger (taller) that Happy by maybe two inches.

Riding with the dog can be dangerous

This morning we saw them again in the park and I am pretty sure Happy is taller now than Karma.

Happy Tongue

The dog and I. He is almost seven months old and is still a pup but he is larger than most all the dogs we see during our morning walks. Our schedule starts when the sun rises which is so much better now when he was very small and had no bladder control or pooping machine. He climbs the ladder from our cabin after I remove the drop boards. He then wanders around the dock looking for small crabs that live here. We climb up the gangway depending on what tide it is and Happy goes to the green patch of grass between the two marinas.

watching crows

As he has gotten older he doesn't have the urgency to pee or poop after spending the night in our sailboat. He would rather explore or meet people. This morning he as waiting at the gate for me and was getting petted my a mother and daughter from New Mexico. Happy has lots of friends that  know him my his doggie name of Happy not Stinker or butthead as he is often called.

Happy likes to meet other dogs

We have been to the local dog park in San Pedro but it is about two miles away and we live across from a large city park that has no shortage of grass, dirt and other dogs. There are several marinas in San Pedro where we live and there is a sidewalk that runs around it. So all day long people stroll, ride their bikes or walk there dogs. 

Off lease in park

German Shepherds are not known as bird dogs but Happy loves to chase them. There are Ground Swallows or Bridge Swallows that fly close to the ground and often tease Happy. He loves to chase the swallows but in an open area there can be other dogs that distract him which makes for more chasing that this old fart needs.

Happy loves cones

In the grass between the marinas there are gophers. The fresh dirt in the morning smells tasty to Happy and he is always ready to dig the gopher hole deeper. The city park people put cones on top of all three holes. Happy thinks they are chew toys.