In Pursuit of Moving Targets

There was coffee this morning! Brewed yesterday, but so what? I'd never brought coffee along on a Freddie walk, so I nuked a mug and transferred it to my Blue Moose coffee thermos. (Most anyone who's been through Hope — or even to Hope? — will know of the Blue Moose Coffee House. I picked this up a few years ago en route to a rowing excursion on Kootenay Lake.)

Another first (of the season, anyway): wearing my down vest. Earthy brown on the outside, tropical turquoise inside. I love this vest. Paul got it for me. 

Just as I was photographing a boring road construction sign, my neighbour Gail came out with her camera and called my attention to this spider web. We both took pictures, and I've no doubt hers are better. I'm going to miss Gail when we move. She's a fantastic neighbour and co-op board president. Her partner, Eric, can fix or make anything — and does!

Here's the construction sign: 

So, having coffee along on our walk was a great idea in theory, but here (half a block from our place) is where most of the coffee got chugged down and the rest dumped. Managing a leash, clicker, treats, camera, and coffee mug is beyond me. But isn't it nifty how these cement paving stones and the wooden retaining barrier look like a railway?

We're into that piles-of-mushy-leaves-everywhere part of Fall, which also involves some pretty impressive FUNGI! There was a gnome hanging out underneath this toadstool, but it/she/he got away before I got my camera into position.

 A mural to complement that one at the Maritime Museum: 

Now, I realize I only just posted a photo of Freddie running out of the fog across a grassy field. But there's a connection to today's post. Freddie loves to chase moving things — the more erratic the movement (and my pitching style is pretty erratic), the better. When we give him a raw bone at home, he often trots around the apartment, whimpering, and my Google-searching of the phenomenon suggests that dogs with a high prey drive feel the need to chase down such prizes before they'll eat them (hence my wrapping of last night's bone in an old towel and running it up and down the common halls/stairs with Freddie in joyous pursuit!).

ANYWAY, Freddie's love of moving targets takes me to a not-very-original diabetes metaphor of blood sugar control as a perpetually moving target. The combination of variables (of which there are roughly 500, give or take) is forever changing (well, for anyone who ever does anything, like, say eat a carrot or take a shower), making it freakin' impossible to come up with an all-purpose formula for insulin doses and suchlike. Chasing balls and squirrels? Bring it on! This other chasing? Crazymaking.

OK, 'nuff whingeing. And here, just to show that the target can, on occasion, be hit, is my post-ball-throwing blood sugar:

Amazing I found a finger clean enough for the job!

Tennyson School has been hosting a Halloween Howl since the mid 1980s. Expo year, in fact. Who remembers that? ;-)

And here we have a nice partner shot to yesterday's. I think this is the first time I've seen a "Found" update on one of these. 

Damn! Missed the gnome again! Talk about moving targets — even Freddie couldn't catch it. 

Flashback Freddie!