it's the dogs! i love dogs, but having them jump through the window destroyed me.

if you want to know how to get back, pick a side (i chose left) and always put torches on that side going down. to come back up, keep the torches on your right. 🔥

the original resident evil. couldn't even get through the first 15 minutes before i threw the controller across the room. i don't play scary games anymore, but i love watching other people play!

silent hill was super fun to watch.

bummer to hear about cohost (but not all that surprising, unfortunately).

i attended hopscotch music festival the weekend before last. three very full days of seeing artist after artist play music (with a tiny bit of stand up comedy and amateur professional wrestling mixed in). it was great, but boy howdy am i feeling like an old. my feet hurt for days afterward.

the day before the festival, my little dog rode around town with me for a whole 13 miles! that's her longest ride ever in her backpack, and she did great. i'm definitely going to upgrade her pack, though, since she was shifting side-to-side a bit which wasn't terribly comfortable.

echo earned her CGCU last week, which is the last of the one-shot titles i plan to get for her. next up is prepping for our first rally trial, including a class that starts at the end of october.

this weekend i'm heading to another three-day fast CAT (coursing ability test) with the little dog. hoping to pick up some advice on stretching her before and after so she's less sore this time around.

omg, i hadn't even noticed that.

it's such a fun event, and i've seen all kinds of dogs do it! as long as she has good recall at the end, i'd say go for it. :)

on apple devices: play.

had a great weekend doing fast CAT with jean grey. she was getting PR after PR, with her best being 8.68 seconds (23.57mph / 37.93 kph). we have another event september 20-22, and i'm pretty sure she's going to earn her second title there! she's been phenomenal around other dogs lately, which is a 180 from how she used to be: barking, lunging, and growling at them.

my older dog, loki (11 year old australian shepherd), has been on prozac most of his life due to anxiety issues, so i'm quite familiar with its use in dogs! basically it allows them to chill out a little bit. both of them are high strung rescue dogs, so the medication definitely helps after i've exhausted all other training routes.

Quite the feat! What’s your trick?

honestly, i keep a pack of cards with me to shuffle through (and sometimes play solitaire with) when i'm bored. i also still have audiobooks on my phone, but i play music from a separate digital audio player. it's nice not to have the compulsion to open mindless scrolling whenever i pick up my phone to do something i actually need to do. most of my time on my phone is now spent using maps for directions, hah.

echo (border collie) started fluoxetine (prozac) last weekend for her anxious tendencies and obsessive behaviors. she also has her urban canine test on wednesday, which i think we'll pass with flying colors, so long as there isn't a leaf blower she can hear.

we've had a couple of chilly nights, but i know we're going to have at least one or two hot weeks before it starts to actually cool down for good.

i've been spending a lot of work days at the coworking space, and i'm making a lot of progress on my latest project, so that's nice. forgot how much that helps me get in the right mindset. probably helps that i dumbed down my phone quite a bit recently, too. no more safari, email, social, or needless apps. down to about 1 hour of phone screen time per day, which is pretty good considering my old averages were around 4-5 hours. 😳

i'm sorry you're in so much pain!

::: spoiler unsolicited advice are you able to see a physical therapist or get a referral to one? they have helped me eliminate pain that my doc only ever gave me muscle relaxers for. :::

i believe so! there were a couple of them styled like that; really cool stuff.

spent the weekend with a friend in the mountains. we saw a bunch of bonsai trees (a couple of my favorites below), went to a couple of breweries, and stayed up too late playing video games. 10/10 weekend, would do again.

also: give them good things to bite! i always had toys handy when i had my puppy. (i do not miss those days.)

we were calling it “the season that never was” today. 🤭

i was going to suggest guinea pigs, too! they might be too "rodent" for wife, but honestly they're a lot more like smaller, low-maintenance rabbits. they have personalities for sure, and as long as you handle them from a young age, they can be picked up and hang out on your lap while you watch tv or whatever.

definitely do not buy a mixed breed dog. rescuing one is totally legit, though! or find a poodle or bichon through a reputable breeder if you want to go that route. some breeders have young adult dogs (2-3 years old) that are done with the show ring and ready for pet homes. if you go through a reputable breeder, they will always take the dog back if it doesn't work out. if you go through a rescue, the same applies. some even have trial periods (the rescue i help out with does two weeks).

::: spoiler why you shouldn't buy a mixed breed dog there is no such thing as an ethically-bred mixed breed dog. dogs are bred to perform specific tasks, and anybody making more dogs without that in mind is only doing them a disservice, as we have a huge overpopulation problem. i volunteer for a border collie rescue, and we consistently find more dogs than we can actually help out.

:::

it was a blast! i highly recommend it if you enjoy big group rides, street festivals, pie, and beer.

howdy! 🤠

i finished riding across iowa a few days ago. now need to return to “normal” life, which is so much more complicated than waking up every day to ride my bike 40-80 miles.

i’m on day three of riding across iowa. it’s so nice to worry only about riding to the next town. i’ve eaten so much pie.

that’s a classic to me! love that one.

my dad bought a switch for his wife recently. neither one of them are “gamers.” i think they only play mario kart!

sounds intriguing!

i’ll have to check this one out. unsettling is my favorite. 🤩

i don’t use the imports but plenty of folks seem to have good luck with it. it does cost an extra $15/year. i tried it out but decided i didn’t like transactions automated from my financial institutions.

eggers is my favorite director. can’t wait for nosferatu!

oh yes! so much better than the first one somehow.

that’s awesome about the nat geo opportunity! i hope it pans out for ya.

another place i’d probably do without a car, if at all possible. i went car free in seattle for a year, another three years in athens, georgia. wasn’t until i moved to atlanta (and later the city i’m in now) that i had to go back to owning one.

i mean, i think paying for parking should happen, especially in places with decent public transit, but wowee.

Parking alone is like $120/mo

any chance you can give up the car? $120/month is outrageous to me. if my city had better public transit (subways!!!), i'd be all over ditching my car.

my dad and his wife visited for a few days, so that was fun. went to a couple of museums, breweries, etc.

RAGBRAI is less than two weeks away!!! i gotta get more riding in. i did get my new tires installed yesterday, since i noticed my old ones were looking a little worse for the wear. was hoping to go for a ride then, but storms rolled in and ruined my plans.

echo (border collie) is showing some signs of generalized anxiety—pacing, whining, barking, and generally restless. i'm not sure if it's because her routine was upset with family visiting + fireworks + storms, but i'll probably get an opinion from the vet. i did ask for some better anti-anxiety meds for the sound events, since the xanax wasn't doing a whole lot, even administered pre-sound.

spent a lot of time reconfiguring my budget with actual since YNAB is hiking up their prices again. still pissed they did away with their promised "lifetime" subscription price.

the yard is very crunchy. we haven't had rain in a few weeks (2-3?), but it looks like it could rain this weekend. i did water my few potted plants that live on the porch since they were looking especially thirsty.

If yours was better than that, care to drop a name for me to go look into?

i ended up getting the sahara shade hoodie from REI because it was on sale. i don't have much to compare it to, but i thought it was really breezy! i even wore it on my ~10 mile bike ride and didn't feel too bad as long as there was a bit of wind.

got some teva sandals for children that i'm digging and a shade hoodie for those really hot days when i don't wanna wear sunscreen.

went to the beach over the weekend, which echo loved! jean (little dog) hates the water, and i didn't want to have to clean all the sand out of loki's coat, hah.

new to us (15-year-old) mazda5 was awesome for hauling all three dog crates and our gear, but the AC stopped working 1/3 of the way back home, so it was a hot ride. 🥵

a little over three weeks until RAGBRAI starts. i'm so sick of training and ready to do the ride already!

howdy! 🤠 🐝

immediately the "drip drip drop" song from bambi rolled into my head!

i know how ya feel, but sometimes you gotta look out for you!

all about the beeple! 🤠