Another Mouth To Feed

Allison had been talking about getting a second Labrador for the past few months. My standard response has always been “but you already have one”. But since I have multiple bikes (and a couple of under-used cars for that matter), I didn’t have much ground to stand on. So from the Labrador Rescuers (the same agency we got Juno from three years ago) comes Boomer.

 

A seven year-old, well-trained and overweight male. His previous owners abandoned him on USMC Camp Pendleton a few weeks ago. They had called the on-base animal shelter to surrender a seven year-old black Lab, but the shelter was full. He was found later the same night, wandering about on an airstrip. Thankfully a base fire chief is also a volunteer for the Lab Rescuers, he picked “Boomer” up and brought him home.

 Fast forward a few weeks and he’s now with us. At 105 lbs., he’s still a good 15-20 lbs. overweight, but with some activity, he should be in better shape within a few months. He’s very well-mannered and gets along just fine with Juno. We’ll see how he is in the long run, and if his “true” personality comes out like Juno’s did after a few months.

Juno Learns How To Use The Gate

So I guess you *can* teach old (and fat) dogs new tricks.

Celeste taught her this trick a few days ago. Better keep that gate locked, lest Juno start bothering the neighbors.

Playin' Possum

Juno, being the ever-protective fLabrador, rooted out an opossum in our back yard the other night.
After it scurried up on our backyard fence it just stood motionless, even though I was just a few feet away from it.
I pitched some pebbles at it to see if it'd move, still no go, so we let it be.

Sunday At Calavera

Since we're due for crummy weather all week...
...and in spite of Celeste's cold and Allie's lingering sickness, I suggested that we get out and do a little local exploring this morning. No Field Trips to San Diego or LA, we just took Juno all of five miles up to the Calavera Lake trails in Carlsbad.

Parked the car at the closed produce stand where Carlsbad is planning to build a new high school...
...slipped thru the gate...
...and walked down a dirt road to get on to some of the trails. Unfortunately Celeste didn't have a whole lot of energy, so we didn't get too far. But the grrrls both needed and appreciated the fresh air.
Celeste found a perfect retrievin' stick for June Bug...
...and, being a Lab, we pitched it down the creek over and over and over and over again. After all, it's unpossible to keep this dog out of water.
We headed home after an hour or so, with a wet, stinky and happy dog panting in the back of the wagon.
After lunch I returned with my bike, a 2.5 hour "hall pass" and the desire to get a better feel for how the extensive trails intertwine to form the fun network. I've ridden Calavera a couple of times with a local friend as well as brought Celeste to the lake on the north side of the open space, but still didn't know it well enough to be able to fully navigate it solo.
Most of the trails I rode today consisted of relatively-smooth and twisty singletrack on decomposing granite and surrounded by abundant California Sage. Minimal elevation changes and everything I rode today was in my bike's middle ring.

Being the car dork I am, I made a point of stopping to check out a long-abandoned Toyota.
Amazingly, the '71 Toyota Corona my dad owned from 1976-85 had far more rust on it than this "KE20" (second generation) Corolla of similar vintage does. Early Japanese cars + Midwestern road salt = a very bad case of tinworm.
The block and transmission were still in place...
...but the 1166cc (55HP) block had been "well-ventilated" - a thrown con rod perhaps?
Just across from the Toy, but far-less complete and unidentifiable (by me at least) was another CARcass...
My hunch? Some small British roadster. The British Racing Green floor pans are a good clue.
Nice flaking paint on the inner side of the door.
All-in-all, I put in about nine miles and 1500' of elevation gain over an hour and a half of exploring the trails, sometimes doubling-back to better figure out how the puzzle pieces fit together.
Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. Now this storm front needs to blow through quickly so I can head back next weekend.

XMAS!!!

It's the funnest holiday for kids...
...and goggies too...
Late Christmas afternoon we headed up to the top of Double Peak in San Marcos (elev. 1644').
While it wasn't the clearest of days, the view and sunset were both superb.

Dog Park!

There's a business park here in Carlsbad with a nice clear pond that becomes an unofficial dog park on the weekends. Even though there are plenty of NO DOGS and NO TRESPASSING signs,
allegedly the owner is cool with dogs enjoying it on the weekends.
We've had Juno since March and haven't seen her swim yet. With the Del Mar dog beach being a ~20 minute drive south and not knowing how she'd react off-leash with other dogs, we felt a smaller venue would be better for our larger goggie.

The good news is that she took to it swimmingly. Literally. We joined a neighbor and her dogs Ziggy and Salty for a little romp.

Salty (left) and Juno

Juno, like most labs, is a water freak and had absolutely no hesitation in leaping in to chase her well-worn tennis ball. She also behaved quite well around the other dogs, even if she could have done a better job listening. Practice needed...
I'm certain we'll be returning.

Storm the Beach!

Another Sunday, another great ride. This time, however, the ride was a race. I tried racing cyclocross a few years ago while living in Wisconsin and absolutely enjoyed the pain and suffering endured during 45 min of my heart thumping away in the anaerobic zone.
Traditional cyclocross generally adds cold/wet/muddy/snowy conditions - something that's obviously not possible here at 33 degrees latitude. Instead, we get a beautiful day at the beach. Yep, temps in the upper 70s and a perfectly-clear blue sky.
But not just any beach, the race was held at Camp Pendleton's Red Beach, a USMC training ground that's usually not open to the public. The course ended up being a very fast and relatively flat 2.5 mile loop on mostly doubletrack dirt roads that encompassed many sections where drafting and other road racing tactics helped considerably.

certainly doesn't look like most CX courses

For some reason the organizers placed only one barrier on the entire course, seen just right of center in the photo above. However, the multiple sections of loose sand more than compensated for the man-made obstacles. Held during a very low tide, one stretch had us racing on the semi-hard packed sand.
And with us being so close to an unregulated beach (well, for the day at least), we brought Juno along to see if she'd enjoy the ocean.
Answer - a definitive yes. She pulled at the leash and dragged Allie down to the surf. Her belly covered in salt water and sand, we had one happy pup. Back to the race...
I entered the men's open category 3 & 4 which meant that I'd be racing for just over 45 minutes against a some collegiate racers - UCSD, USC, UCSB and University of Oregon were seen - along with other guys up to about 45 or so in age. And while I started towards the back of the pack to watch things sort out during the fast first lap, I still managed to pass enough riders throughout the race to end with a respectable top ten (I think - results not yet posted) finish, thanks in part to the grrrls cheering me on.

stats
time: 47:20
distance: 12.11 miles (that's all??)
elevation gain: only 533'
avg speed: 15.4 MPH
top speed: 25.2 MPH
avg heart rate: 166 BPM (ouch)
max heart rate: 180 BPM (ouch)

Not only did I get a great, fun, fast race in, but I also came back with a sweet souvenir, a fantastic dirt tan...
...as well as a nice pile of sand in each shoe:

who you callin' a sandbagger?

Another good day in the saddle AND with the grrrls. Especially after the post-race recovery beverage (an ice-cold Red Stripe beer).

Juno Update

Well, the World's Fattest Lab has slimmed down considerably since we picked her up in the Spring. She's still a bit overweight with a belly full o' flab, but you can at least see some "hips" on the old girl.
Back in March she was weighing in at 125 lbs. Last time she was we checked, prior to going on prescription dog food (which makes her burp - a lot), the scales showed 104. We just need to get her down under 95 in order to have her spayed. Two brisk 30 minute walks per day have also helped.

She's been a great addition to the family. Pretty mellow for the most part - but still spunky when you get a tennis ball out or say "walk" (and especially - and obviously "eat"). She also enjoys a little tug of war with her rope toy. We're just working on her behavior with other dogs as she will sometimes growl at other dogs. But maybe that's just because she's an old bitch.

Maybe That's How She Got So Fat

Juno sure likes the smell of human food. But hey, she's a Lab...
Already down to 113 lbs. We think she's part Lab, part pot-bellied pig and part polar bear.

Dog on the Blog

Allie has been looking for a good, adoptable dog from the local Labrador rescue organization for the past few months. Well today we finally found "the one".

We went to a dog festival "Paws in the Park" in Solana Beach today as she had heard that a certain pup was going to be present.

Her name (at the moment at least) is Pebbles. She's about 4-5 years old, an almost-white yellow Lab female. And probably the fattest Lab I have ever seen.
She came to the rescue from a breeder and pushed out some puppies over the years. In fact, relatively recently as she's pretty droopy on her underside.
Weighing in at a whopping 125, our first goal is to get her weight down to about 100 or so. Then down even further if possible. She's on a prescription weight-loss dog food (can't wait to find out how much that costs) and with many walks planned by Allie, she should do alright.
She's a pretty mellow girl, reminding us a lot of the last Lab we rescued from a breeder - Nessie (R.I.P.). Her foster "parents" state that she's only barked once, loves tennis balls and swimming and is great around kids. She seemed pretty nice today even though there were hundreds of distracting dogs around.

Allie will pick her up sometime later in the week. It'll be great to have a doggie around the house again.
Oh, and name - right now we're leaning towards Juno. In Roman mythology Juno is protector and special counselor of the state. Also the sister (and oddly also the wife) to Jupiter.