Raindrops On Dachshunds

🎶🎵 And whiskers on kittens … 🎵🎶 Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens … 🎵

Oh wait, this is not The Sound of Music, and I’m definitely not Julie Andrews!

More important; dachshunds (or at least my dachshunds) do NOT have any fondness for raindrops landing on their heads! Personally, I find the almost musical patter of rain on the roof soothing, but agree with the dogs about wet heads.

Of course, the preferences of dachshunds were not taken into account when Mother Nature chose to drench our little corner of the world yesterday. Rain, rain, rain, rain and more rain. Even with foul-weather gear on, the long-dogs were not impressed. Wet heads! Wet ears! Wet tails! Wet feet! What wet wusses!

On the bright side, I’m guessing the fire danger level in Alaska is fairly low right now – it seems to be raining pretty much everywhere. Can’t we direct some of it to British Columbia and the western US?

In any case, as I sit here this evening, listening once again to the patter of rain on the roof, I find myself hardly able to believe it is already August.

How quickly summer has flown by. Although the trees are still vibrantly green; the raspberries are ripe for picking, fireweed stalks are tall and in full bloom, and the August rains have arrived in fine fettle.

You can’t fool me. All signs indicate that summer is sliding into third base and turning for home. The game’s not over yet though – oh no! There is still time! Where’s a good short-stop when you need them? Stop that runner! I need more summer!

Plan (dream); With Canada actually open, I could head for the border at Tok the first week of September and still make it down to the lower 48 before snow. Probably. I could go straight to Tom & Cheryl’s in Oregon to rest up and visit for a bit (hopefully,they still have space and a hook up for me.)

Then, depending on weather and camping availability, I could mosey across the middle states, possibly dipping south if snow is forecast, in time to visit with my son, Dan, and family in Wisconsin. I’d LOVE to do the Great Lakes tour, but following the fall colors south is my best bet. It would be October by then.

At that point, unless horrible storms or other weather got in my way, I could try to find my cousins Jim & Sue, somewhere in the mid-west, and then head to Texas and Arizona to visit family and friends there. Hmm … if I did that, I might have to stay for a bit. 😉

With ANY luck, I would then follow nice late “shoulder weather” all the way back up the west coast to Oregon, where I would hope to visit my son and his wife, my multitude of grandchildren and great grandchildren some more, then have my son Tom help me winterize “Roada”, leaving her in his capable hands while Rhonda and I reluctantly board a plane for Alaska for the remainder of the winter.

Wait. You didn’t think I’d even DREAM about a trip of this magnitude without at least one furry, 4-legged navigator, did you? How silly.

Or … I could stay home and get knee replacement surgery. 😱 Sigh.