Thanks for all the comments and news. Sandra, a busy day after Grace isn’t a bad thing. You’ll hit your stride soon. I’m looking forward to your journal resuming publication. Yesterday I sat down to the computer to do some work. I ended up dealing with upgrades and system issues. It took me most of the day. Last night we walked to the local Outpost Coop to buy a few things. Kiwi for breakfast is very good. ...

The movers finally arrive after 5 o’clock Saturday and were very tired. Apparently their last pickup thought they would pack everything and was totally unpacked. Of course, they hadn’t contracted for this. I understand they moved everything out, but left a few hinges behind. Fortunately, they will be mailed. They did, however, litter which I will report. My daughter-in-law arrived at work after vacation to discover her boss thought she would be out today and scheduled a meeting for all day tomorrow when we planned to sign the lease. I have emailed the apartment and I hope Wednesday will be okay. ...

Elwood was still on eastern time this morning. Now that he and I know where his relief area is, this will work well. We took a long walk with J. and Melanie to a local coffee shop where we had lunch outside. Milwaukee prices are very different from Jamestown prices. Next we went to Trader Joe’s and to Walgreens. A several mile walk in gorgeous weather. I got a sunburn. Elwood got a workout with many street crossings. He handled everything with aplomb. ...

Today Elwood and I set off for the two-block walk to the Post Office. I have found our city Post office to be a peculiar building, but then, maybe every Post Office is peculiar. There was the little building behind Musclemann’s store where Mrs. perdom weighed our 4-H rabbits for my sister and me. We brought them in our doll carriage, the only conveyance we had available to us which would contain the rabbits. A wagon would not have worked. ...

We certainly are enjoying the warmer weather and dry sidewalks here in jamestown. Elwood and I have done our River Walk route and are starting to walk down 3rd Street for exercise. We found that the crossing at Washington is clear. We went down that way when the circus was in town. Elwood was acting very strange, not focused on what I wanted him to do but investigating other people and looking around. It seems he was smelling elephants.

Elwood and I were invited to Easter dinner. Elwood was additionally invited to be loose in the house. He immediately began to rush about, upstairs and down, investigating everything. The appetizers on the coffee table created some excitement. Bouncing on and off people’s laps created a stirr. The biggest excitement though was when he discovered the Easter ham on the sideboard. He was apprehended with his nose a quarter of an inch from the ham. ...

Fortunately, the bad windstorm that hit Buffalo and the northern part of the county only made our streets blustery. I used the yacktracks (spelling) for the first time. They go over the bottoms of my boots to help get a secure grip on the sidewalk. It was icy in the morning. I’m getting used to them. It feels like very springy stuff underfoot and I didn’t feel quite as stable but I didn’t slip.On the way home the crossing of 3rd treet didn’t feel right–too long. I encouraged Elwood to get out of the street and onto the sidewalk. He did, bumping me into a sign. Well, a sign was better than a atractor trailor. We got to the next curb. I was expecting Pine Street which is brick with a long ramp. We weren’t there. Hmmm. Where were we? It was cold and the wind was blowing. It was not a pleasant to day to be lost if there is ever a pleasant day to be lost. I decided we must be at the corner of North Main and 2nd on the west side. This meant that when crossing 3rd, Elwood had angled across NOrth Main, too. I mention this not to scare anyone, but to say how grateful I am that Jamestown drivers make it a point not to hit me when I’m walking down the center of the street which has the light. So we made our turn, crossed, went down to Pine, up the hill, crossed Pine and came home. That was done with great aplomb. I always wonder what prompts a dog to make such an error. I sometimes think they are daydreaming or something catches their eye or maybe we just got blown across the street. Of course, this story sounds straight forward and simple. It’s not when I don’t know for certain that I’m standing at the northwest corner of 2nd and North Main. I could have been on an entirely different street facing another direction. I just acted as if and it worked out just fine. Because of the weather, we didn’t take our afternoon walk yesterday but we ventured forth today. I tiink the yacktrax helped a good deal on the river walk. I A great deal of the path is now exposed but there is a patch which is slow to clear. It must be shady there. Elwood considers we are a standard route and he walks it without complaint. We’re working on going to the down curb at North Main and not turning left or right to go up or down the hill until I tellhim which way to go. I also pointed out the cut out in the sidewalk that was causing me to go off the walk into the grassline. He avoided that mistake the next time through. Elwood still has difficulty with right hand clearances. In his defense, and he doesn’t have much of a case, honestly, he often has to fit through some fairly tight places and I carry a bag in my right arm and tend to have that arm out a bit from my body. However, it’s his job to account for everything. His trainer was young and maybe thinner. I actually think he doesn’t like tosqueeze himself. However, he doesn’t like to be in error so pays attention when I point things out to him. He even did a bit better with not sniffing the people he passed today. In avoiding a nasty piece of sidewalk on the bridge the other day he ran me into the side of the bridge. I hope there is more than the concrete I felt; otherwise, I could have gone over the edge which would not have been pleasant. The river is running but probably very, very cold. Someone asked me the other day how my new dog was working out. I said, “He’s learning the ropes.” And the other person said, “I thought they came trained.” Well, yes, but every trip, every route is its own new adventure.

Although today has been a sunny day, we haven’t had much opportunity to go for a walk. This is partly my fault–I haven’t organized my time to fit a walk in during the warmest time of day. The other factors have been snow, very cold temperatures, wind and inconvenience. Elwood has a trouble with salt or wet getting between his paws. Walking past the bank at 3rd and Main is especially difficult. He stops at the alley and suggests we go to 2nd Street or cross 3rd in the middle of the block. It takes a lot of encouragement for him to go forward and he hops about. I have thought of putting on his “boots” but as we were not successful when we used them at school, I am lothe to go through the trial of getting them onto his feet. I am almost positive he would lose one of them by the time we got to AMain Street. As smart as he is, Elwood is a little slow at figuring out it is to his advantage to keep such things in place. He has become a better worker in snow. Unfortunately, he still thinks it would be fun to depart mfrom our route and play in the snow. Wouldn’t that be fun? Probably and I feel badly we can’t, or at least he can’t, but we could easily become lost and separated. I have no idea how Elwood would handle being loose and I don’t want to find out.Elwood likes being cute and knows everybody else thinks he is just adorable when he’s doing cute things. It drives me wild and being tough on him is never popular.The other day, I had him finally settled under the table at a restaurant. He wanted to visit with my friend who was sitting across from me. We were proceeding with our breakfast and our conversation. A woman came up and asked if she could pet the dog. I said, “No,” and she proceeded to carry on, with tears in her eyes, how Elwood looked so much like the yellow lab she had had and went from dog story to dog story about every dog she had ever had. Results? Elwood now bounced around. She had interrupted my friend and Ime. I was very annoyed. Uncharitable? I am willing to be charitable, but not to letting people pet my dog. I am compassionate, but not to the point of having my breakfast totally disrupted. Don’t people get it?

Today Elwood is three. I can hardly believe it. He wasn’t quite two when I got him. I can’t say he has settled down any. In some ways, he seems wilder now. I think this is because he thinks he can get away with more things with me. We don’t tell the dogs we can’t see, but they figure it out. Elwood’s great transgression is sleeping on the day bed. It is hard to catch him and even to scold him when he wags so happily at me. “Hi! Here I am.” ...

Elwood went to the spa today. He hesitated about going in, but afterwards I was told he very much enjoyed his bath–all the attention and hugging. It turns out Elwood had 2 grease spots on either shoulder. He checks out the undersides of vehicles for some odd reason. The groomer’s actual has degreasing shampoo. Apparently he is not the only dog to engage in this peculiar habit. I forgot to check. We were on our way to the grocery store when Kathy said, “He brought his bone with him.” So I relieved Elwood of the bone and had to carry it along the street and into the car. Elwood thought he might pick it up again and bring it with him into the store. I said not. HE doesn’t hold onto it but drops it after a while and I didn’t want it to get lost because he wouldn’t learn the lesson about taking care of his stuff; he’d just be sad he had nothing to play with.