Christmas Dew

Honeydew, and the rest of the Crim Critters (even us two legged ones), wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

"Arctic Blast 08"

Well, the weather here in Portland is pretty crazy (by our standards).  Below (attached) are some pictures from our Monday morning commute!  Much of it was by foot, through lots of snow and ice.  I actually wore my "Nanook of the North" snow boots - I haven't worn those since I left North Dakota! 

Glenn worked from the coffee/book store downtown (imagine that), and I worked from my office until the Mayor shut the city down and sent everyone home.  Most of the trains weren't running, and over 70 buses were stuck in the snow - including the one that goes to our house.  Ugh.  I waited about 45-minutes to catch a shuttle that was packed to the gills with the 100 other people that were stranded in town.  Glenn got tired of waiting and opted to walk home...5+ miles, in the deep snow.  

That is where he is as I type this.  He is following a couple on cross-country skis (towing a kid trailer that is also on skis).  He is pretty miserable and is likely wishing he would have waited for the shuttle with me.  Poor guy.  Luckily, he is heavily caffeinated...and this trek should cure him of the terrible case of "ants in his pants" he had from being stuck in the house yesterday.  :)  The odds of us going into work tomorrow are looking pretty slim, as this isn't going to melt and they are expecting more snow tonight.  I guess this is the worst storm to hit Portland since the 1960's.  Hopefully, it doesn't all melt at once and cause massive flooding like it did about 10 years ago ("500 year floods").

The photos are of the pups playing in the snowy yard.  A good "action shot" of Honeydew.

More Snow Adventures

Hello!  It has been a while since a Honeydew update, so I thought I would send along a few pictures.  She is doing great.  She is getting bigger and smarter by the day!  She gets spayed this Friday, so that will take her out for a few days, but I am sure she will bounce back quickly.  At last week's puppy class she graduated into a "large" sized jacket - so that officially means she is getting to be a big girl.  One of the instructors said that she will probably continue to fill out, but that her height and length likely won't change much more.  We are still working on the new "go to bed" command.  We had to demonstrate it at class (see Photo 1) - and Honeydew had to go first.  She did a great job, much better than some of the other pups (which is always our goal! haha).  Our social outing this week was cancelled due to the weather, which Glenn loves because it is his birthday and now he can do whatever he wants that night (which will likely involve eating a Hostess berry pie and watching The Simpsons).

Other exciting news - Honeydew experienced her first snow storm this week.  She thought it was a blast, at first. She just ran around the yard smelling all of the snow. She didn't eat it, just wanted to smell it - over and over and over again.  It was hard to get a good picture of her because she had her nose to the ground the whole time.  Now she just thinks the snow is cold and over-rated and you have to drag her outside to "do her business". 

Sunday night I decided to take one of the light rail trains out to the airport to greet Glenn (he was coming back from California and really didn't have any winter clothes with him - it was approximately 24-degrees out).  So, I checked the train schedules and they seemed to be running with no problems from the snow and ice. So, Honeydew and I geared up and headed out into the white tundra.  Well, all the transit was running great until we got about 25% of the way there....then the track switches froze and trains were getting stuck on the tracks.  It took over two hours, two train rides, lots of standing in the blowing snow, and a VERY crowded shuttle ride before we arrived to meet Glenn at the airport - about an hour after we were supposed to be there.  It was one of those times I regret holding out and not getting a cell phone - as we had to keep going because I couldn't call Glenn an tell him to abort the mission and grab a cab!  Honeydew was a trooper, but was definitely ready to get home.

Photo 1:  Honeydew and the other class mates on their magic carpets doing the "go to bed" command. 

Photo 2) The Dew and a new bone.  I didn't realize until the other day that she was allowed (per Guide Dogs) to have the sterilized cow bones - she was in heaven.

Photo 3) Catching snow on her tongue.  :)

Photo 4) What a snow bunny!

Photo 5) Honeydew resting on my feet during our epic airport journey on mass transit!  I think this is the view that most people have of her when we are on transit - these little eyes peaking out from under the seat. 

First Snow!

We woke up this morning to snow flakes (which is very rare here in Portland - in town)!  TV folks have been worked up about the proposition of snow for a week now, but usually nothing ever comes of it, so I half believed that it really wasn't going to snow.

This is Honeydew's first snow, and she wasn't quite sure what to make of it - spin circles in it, eat it, etc.  Mainly she just sniff, sniff, sniffed it.  This was one of the only pictures I got of her where her head wasn't stuck to the ground like a Hoover (is it time to throw that tomato plan away?).  Tully was being a little more subdued about the whole thing, she's been there and done that - I thought the picture of her turned out great, a definite keeper.