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. 

Year End New Puppy

Turned on the TV this morning to see the weather forecast. 5 car commercials in a row with reindeer, Christmas trees, ribbons and smiling children. One spooky one with a Lincoln owner following a wood burning train. Ford must have a hell of a filming budget. VW is larger.

All in all, the German automaker paid over $6 billion in advertising. That's truly an astounding number, especially when you put it into perspective. With that kind of money, you could buy approximately 2,300 Bugatti Chirons -- 1,800 more than what has ever been produced. The next biggest spender was General Motors; they spent a measly $5.7 billion. Collectively, more money was spent on advertising by auto manufactures than ever before.

Turned the TV off and tried the internet for news. SF Gate is always interesting , Maybe there is a rush to died before the end of the year.

My former shipmate was a mix of German Shepard and Akita. We found her in a cardboard box in front of a Staters Brothers in Phelan which is the high desert. We always stopped there to pick up supplies when we went motorcycling in the desert.

DeDe at marina in San Pedro

We named her DeDe for desert dog.

She loved to run on the beach.

At low tide there is a sand bar inside the breakwater at Dana Point across from Baby Beach where several dogs would meet to party.

DeDe running with Buddy

Today is Wednesday mid week between Christmas and New Years and the seventh day for my new puppy. The details are vague but my daughter met someone at a wedding reception that ran a dog clinic.

The next thing I see are text messages of puppies dressed for Christmas.

Then a picture of the real trouble maker.

Monster on left

Toy reindeer

Last Thursday I was supposed to meet my daughter at the dog clinic here in San Pedro but in route I stopped to buy gasoline for my Nissan. I seldom drive, it was raining, the wipers were on plus the headlights and defroster after stopping for a few dollars of gas the engine refused to restart because the battery was low. Well my phone was charged so I texted my daughter and she met me next to the gas station where I had pushed my car.

Out like a light

My grandson was holding the puppy who was crying. It was pouring. raining puppies and cats. We rode back to the marina and my sailboat where I got another battery. We left the puppy with Arlo my grandson and we headed back up to switch batteries.

First car trip to park

Christmas day was a planned adventure to take the puppy for a car trip without any carrier. Plans didn't work out as the mutt wanted to drive and refused to ride shotgun.

Since Sunday he has had three rides in the car and has been to two different parks.

His new name is still being debated. I am so used to calling my old dog butthead or Dede Butt I may just stick with that. The puppy came from SNP/LA.

My son came over to the boat to visit the new puppy. He also brought a new dog bed which was really needed because Butt Head had chewed up most of his makeshift bed.




This was recorded and edited my Dylan. He wants to name the pup "Trails"
While the pup took a nap Dylan and I went out paddling on stand-ups. Later down the line the dog will also be included in family paddling but not now.

Dylan has always been a good at sports: motorcycles, bicycles, surfing, and snowboarding. My learning curve isn't ready for snowboarding but I still can ski. Here his Dylan on Christmas day boarding at Bear.