Lazy Summer

This summer is going by so quickly – our recent trip to France was now over 6 weeks ago. Our flights to and from were pretty eventful due to the strike in Portugal. But the week we were there was relaxing, if a bit jam-packed. From there, Christopher flew immediately to a business trip in Japan. And I came back home to return to normal office work. Now he’s back, and we’re nearly half-way through July!

The weather is finally hot in New York. It’s not the same kind of Texas hot. I prefer Texas hot. New York hot includes humid subway platforms and no-central air apartment buildings and shops (larger office building and department stores have central air). In Texas summers, I can leave a building and sit in the car without turning it on (I know, I’m weird), and breathe in the heat. And with newer construction, I don’t really have to worry about the electricity bill being outrageous at the fact that we’d all like to avoid heat stroke. In New York, I try not to breathe in too deeply on public transportation, and the window A/C units aren’t exactly air tight. That being said, summer is still my favorite season; so I’m not letting the disadvantages get to me too much.

For a new summer activity, and all around new hobby, I bought a pet trimmer. Pet grooming can be costly. It’s $50 minimum for each grooming appointment. And the pet trimmer was $80. So, by the time I use it twice instead of taking Renn to the groomer, it will have paid for itself. And after that, it’s all money saved. Renn was a pretty good client and was relatively patient with my unskilled hand. I watched the DVD first that came with the trimmer. It was more or less unhelpful. It demonstrated three types of doggie haircuts in rapid succession, none of which I particularly wanted on Renn.

Before getting to work, I gave Renn and bath and got the folding table out with a towel down on top of it. After Renn was dry, I got to work. Cutting the hair on his back and sides was easy. His face wasn’t too bad, but his ears, neck, chest, and legs were quite different. His fur there (ears being the exception) is really curly and would catch on the trimmer. As a result, I had to leave those areas much longer than his back. So, when I was all done, the shape of the cut was more like a Schnauzer than a Poodle or any other cut. I was very glad not to have given him razor burn or nicked him anywhere. I was concerned that my zeal would result in injury.

I think I’ll get better the more I groom him. Even though he’s a bit uneven in places, the parents of his neighborhood doggie friends have noticed and said he looked good.

In other lazy-summer news, Christopher finally got me to watch the series Lost. It gave me something to do while he was on his business trip. I think if I had been watching it as it aired, I wouldn’t have made it through the first two seasons, which I did not like very much. I did like seasons 3, 5 and 6. We also watched the season/series finale of Awake, which I found to be very disappointing.

Hopefully soon, I’ll get some of Christopher’s Japan pictures and be able to share those.