Elly, We Don't Need To Be That Bonded

I finally mapped out my training miles for April's Half last night and found out I still have one more week to do with as I choose before sticking to a specific course of action. Hooray! Given it took me so long to write down the schedule, I liked knowing I didn't have to hop right on it.

And, today's run was both pleasing and not pleasing. It all started off well for both me and my furry friend as the weather was cooperative:

Yeah, you say that, but I love it. There was also no wind. I love
that even more.

Elly was very helpful showing me, in case I forgot, where the things are to keep me warm outside where she wanted to be with me:

"You're stuff is right here, mommy. And, so am I."

And, temperatures like this morning's make pretty stuff like this ...

... and, this ...

... and, it allows for spectacular color coordination of my shirt, my gloves and Elly's leash:

It's such a low priority but also fun when it happens. I do love
purple, so this combo is yum to me!

Weather like this also presents a number of hazards, and I took that into strong consideration when picking our route. Sidewalks I normally use are not completely clear which means sporadic patches of ice. I've already gone down once this year and had to plans to do so again already (I say "already" because I'm a realist). Unfortunately, I wasn't the one to take one for the team today ...

We weren't 100 yards from heading out when we needed to move over for a car backing into the street. Elly's very careful on ice, but something startled her, she moved too fast and down on her hip she went. (Spoiler alert: She's fine.)

Elly's fall was a little scary as I watched her right, hind leg just whip out from under her toward her belly. She landed with authority on her hip which didn't really concern me (the girl picked the right place to land, that's for sure), but watching her reaction scrambling to get up did. I mean, she's no human who may stay down and moan for a minute; she wanted up now. I was worried about the way she twisted her back to get up, but she managed and seemed okay. I rubbed her hip, and she didn't wince, so we gave the outing a try.

About a minute after the fall, I noticed she did one of those skippidy-skips someone does when the stub a toe or have that residual shooting pain after, oh ... I don't know ... a fall, but she seemed to shake it off as fast as it hit, so I figured we'd go until she let me know otherwise. We did our first-ever role reversal where I slowed down to make sure she did, too. Ah, the student becomes the teacher. We're bonded like that. By the way, I might mention, she nailed the same hip I did when I fell. I should remind her we don't need to be that bonded.

Elly seemed to have no problems for the rest of the run. I am pretty certain a dog will mask pain, so I spent part of the first mile studying her movement. I realized pretty quickly that I could look at each of her legs long enough and "see" something that could be wrong if I wanted to. So, I gave that up and gave her some time to move. Once we passed the second mile, I took another specific look at her form, and it looked good:

"No problems here, mommy. Let's roll!"

She even had it in her to get her hackles up all along the route which was chock full of other canines behind fences:

"The more dogs we see, the more new places I get to mark.
This is awesome!"

The route did have its rewards post-splat. Elly got to act tough a number of times and lick some snow, and I found BBs and -- could not believe I even saw -- pennies!

The one in the middle toward the bottom is the one I actually
saw, and it's way easier to see in the picture than in person.
Fun nugget -- they were both frozen to the ground, too. Oh,
but that wasn't going to stop me. I finally used my key to pry
them up ... thinking it would be kind of funny to call Aaron
and tell him, "I'm locked out, but, hey! The Food Bank is
two cents richer!" The third penny I found later was just
hanging out in the road; no prying required.

We're back home and doing well. I cut the mileage shorter than planned today (taking full advantage of the liberty to do so) so I could bring in some firewood ... you saw the temp!! Elly has been curled up on the couch which she loves. I'll be watching her when she finally decides to get up to see how the hip is after not moving for-ev-er (she's really quite lazy), but I'm confident she'll be okay. Tomorrow's Rest Day, too, so that is well timed for her!

Okay, one more thing before signing off for today. Do you know what these represent?

No, I'm not about to launch into any reason why they're probably considered a super food or how they are great fuel for activity. Nope. Today, they represent kindness ... I was in line to pay for some things I picked up before heading out to run when I looked over and saw the pomegranates marked down to a dollar each. These are big and lovely and only a dollar (where, in this particular store, they are usually two dollars), so I chose to get out of line to get some.

When I returned to the line (which hadn't moved ... always awesome especially when there was only one line open and six people in it, but I digress ... besides, I seriously don't get uptight in line), the man behind me when I bailed for the pomegranates offered me my place back. Given I was balancing the pomegranates on a pile in my arms, I gladly took him up on it but thanked him more than he expected because it was just a nice thing for him to do. He most certainly could have just moved forward when I left in the first place and been done with it. But, he took a moment to look at the scene as a whole and decided offering me my spot was the decent thing to do. I smiled, he smiled, everyone won.

It was a great start to a Monday all the way around. Except for Elly. But, I think she already forgot what happened. We'll see you tomorrow from Rest Day!