A Birthday of Sorts

The sun was out yesterday, so Olga and I seized the opportunity and went to Hampstead Heath. Carpe diem, right?

We walked all through the West Heath and visited the cafe at Golders Hill Park for a coffee and a piece of carrot cake. (Even Olga got some carrot cake -- not a whole piece, just some of mine.) Then we walked to the Extension and back through the woods of Sandy Heath. Olga is much slower than she used to be, but she still chases her tennis ball and barks at the squirrels.

It occurred to me while walking that we got Olga in January 2013, ten years ago, but I couldn't remember the date. So when I got home I checked the ol' blog, and believe it or not, we got Olga ten years ago TODAY! I wrote here about picking her up from the All Dogs Matter rescue shelter. That was back when we weren't even sure what to name her.

I remember when I first saw her, leaping around in her pen, that I was surprised by how big she was. We had a neighbor at the time with a staffy named Charlie, but he was much smaller and I'd expected Olga to be about that size. She was wearing a black, metal-studded collar provided by the shelter, and she looked...thuggish. It freaked me out a little. I remember calling Dave and saying, "This dog is huge." She was so excited that I ran up and down the parking lot with her on a lead to work out some energy.

So this is the closest thing to a birthday that old dog's going to get. When we adopted her, All Dogs Matter said she was three years old. Our vet at the time put her age closer to two. You can all do the math -- she's 12 or 13 now.

Last night, Dave had a dinner meeting with a job candidate, so I stayed home on my own. I scrounged up dinner from the pantry -- tuna fish with rice and peas -- and binged the Netflix documentary about Bernie Madoff. That really is a crazy story, and as one of his victims said, a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare. I'm not sure I appreciated how huge it was at the time.

I also brought in all our tender plants yesterday, to prepare for a couple of nights of below-freezing temperatures. Above, packed in next to the avocado, cacti and ficus that normally live by the back door, you can see four geraniums, our Amistad sage and a fern. (Which might not be tender but I'd rather not risk it.) The plectranthus and another geranium are in another room, and the small canna lily is in the shed. We covered the banana and the big canna. It's supposed to be 22º F tonight (-5º C) with possible snow and ice. We're as prepared as we'll ever be!