So I am dogsitting again, this time for Rusty - the 7-year-old Golden Retriever my friend Cindy adopted last month. She doesn't want him to feel abandoned after just starting to settle in, so she's really appreciative I could stay with him. We're having a lot of fun, and it's nice to be living in a furnished house with a TV and working kitchen for a while.

Only problem is, Cindy is a morning person, so Rusty thinks 6 a.m. is more than late enough to let me "sleep in." When I stayed with Cindy before I could move into my place, she would take an hour-long run before catching the 6:20 a.m. express bus into work. (At least that's what she told me - I slept through the whole thing.) I tried to convince Rusty it was the weekend, but then I remembered on the weekends, Cindy would get up before 6 a.m. to take a 50-mile bike ride. Yes, some of my friends are even more insane than I am, just in different ways.

This has been an ongoing battle all week, mostly with me losing. The only battleline I've held is I won't get up if it's still dark outside. Even the youngest child can understand that concept. Once it's light out, if he's really persistent, I'll let him outside to pee, then go back to bed, which leaves him completely flabbergasted. At that point he'll start to amuse himself, which of course means inappopriate licking. Ok, maybe it's not inappropriate to a dog, but I sure as hell don't want to have to hear that when I'm trying to get back to sleep.

That's why I found myself taking a walk at the ungodly hour of 7a.m. It was a fairly short walk, followed by a 2-hour power nap. Then I felt so refreshed, I decided to take him for a real walk, since it is the weekend after all. Seemed like a good chance to revisit my old biking haunts, and get the pooch pooped and scooped. So I folded down the back seat of the car and we headed for the Bay Farm Island portion of the Bay Trail.

The minute Rusty launched his 70 lb frame into my car, I started to wonder if this might be too much fun for him for me to handle. I've already got shinsplints from straining against being dragged at the end of his leash the past 3 days. We get there and sure enough, I think he's going to have a coronary he's so excited. The rocky shoreline is riddled with brazen ground squirrels, with the Bay glistening beyond. That was almost too much for him to take. I thought we were both going to end up in a the drink a few times.

An hour and a half later, we're both pretty pooped. Time for me to hit the shower and rustle up something to BBQ at Brenda & Kathy's. Have a great weekend everybody.