Swimming with Sydney!

Mike and I rode together this morning. It's nice when he asks me to go for a ride with him. We looped through Mogul, Verdi and Boomtown and enjoyed the calm morning before the wind and the heat picked up. While we were riding, we were chatting about our time in Innsbruck, Austria, and how that was the best riding vacation we ever took. Our heads are spinning now about possible ways to return there. What's interesting to me is that that trip was over 4 years ago. We have had such wonderful adventures together. Marriage is a good thing.

It's been pretty hot---I mean it's August. You can't even talk about the heat here since it is hot everywhere. Everywhere but the Bay Area---where it is warm-ish hot. So when you spent most of your life growing up in the "always good" climate, you have much to learn about the way the rest of the world lives. Actually, it is hot in the desert, but it is so dry that one can tolerate as much as 20 degrees hotter/colder than you are used to before it becomes uncomfortable.

The Scrapper gets so hot and dry on her walks that we decided to head to the Truckee River and take the fat hound swimming. She is an amazing Jack Russell Retriever and she swam and retrieved a sock-wrapped-tennis ball until she was beat. The water is still cold and refreshing. Mountain fed water usually is. Until the last three years, I always thought the water should be cold in the summer. (Ever surfed in the Pacific Ocean in the SF Bay---it is in the 50's in the summer and winter!) But in the East---the water is bath water---and so it was a nice reminder that I am on the West coast again.

When we got back home Sydney was a dirty wet and smelly hound. Mike managed to get her with the garden hose while performing bike maintenance on my bike (always a multi-tasker). Then it was time for beer and a pasta feast, especially prepared by the head chef in the Taylor abode. (hint: it is NOT me!)

I am off to Southern California next week. The best news is that I will stay at my brother's over the Labor day weekend and go and see my nephew Zachy play his first tackle football pre-season. Happy Sunday!