Seize the Right-of-Way!

I only recently learned (from Paul) that the term "right-of-way" can apply to a railway bed and/or the right to run a rail line through a particular area. Nifty. So while Freddie and I did no seizing of automobile thoroughfares this morning, we did seize both the day and the old Arbutus rail line.

Here's Freddie on his long leash. I suspect he'd do just fine at off-leash seizing, but with traffic just over the hump and a few busy roads to cross — not to mention Freddie's persistent puppyishness — I thought it best not to take the risk.

He seems pretty happy with the compromise!

 

Now, that is one carefully groomed hedge! We'll see how I do later today when I attempt my first home grooming of Freddie's coat. Probably a good thing Hallowe'en is just around the corner.

This next hedge proved to be a little more interesting. I'm not sure where the passageway leads, but the two people who emerged seemed to be from somewhere (somewhen?) else.

Here they are. The man was somewhere between sixty and seventy, I'd guess; the girl was around six. As they passed, I heard the girl say, "When the snow comes, will Jake pull us to school in the sled?" And the man — her grandfather? — answered: "Oh, yes. That'll be Jake's job when the snow comes."

Really? Did I hear right? Was my blood sugar tanking?

Nope. No excuse here. I hope the snow comes. I look forward to seeing Jake pull the sled.

This is Mike, a professional dog walker/biker/trainer. He claims he can cycle with up to 12 dogs tethered to his bike. After Freddie had a bit of a play with these two labs, Mike offered to take him on a very short trial trot, attached to the bike. Freddie seemed interested, so I said sure.

He did want to make darn sure I wasn't letting this friendly but unusual guy take him away!

But Mike turned around just a few meters on, and Freddie was all smiles, trotting along with the other dogs. For my own cycling purposes, I feel more confident with Freddie strapped into his trailer ... but I've thought about trying to rig something up with a scooter, like this guy Dave did with his diabetic alert dog, Luka.

This afternoon's walk took us to Tisol, where I acquired an attachment for Freddie's clippers and learned I should probably set aside an entire day for my first attempt at home grooming. Okie-dokie ... I guess the new haircut will have to wait! More interestingly, we ran into Alina, one of my grade 6/7 French immersion students from (I'm guessing here) 1990-92. She was an über-smart, charming kid back then, and now she's an über-smart, charming hematologist!

Our second stop was the new digs, where our friend David, a talented writer who moonlights as a talented painter, is busy beautifying our walls. No bites yet on the current place (is there a stress/anxiety/insomnia emoticon I can insert here?). I wonder if we'll end up re-listing the new one and seeing which sells first. Gah. When I go to bed tonight, I need to think about snow and sleds and dog scooters!