16.12.10

morning run:
Oscar
Otto
Archie
Chester
Eve
Rufus
Ernie
Jack
(8)

What a good group. The harness more or less did its magic again with Rufus at the gate. Sadly, I forgot what an idiot Ernie is when I got this little band together, especially at the start. The best one-word description I can arrive at is gibbering, which is the attitude he maintained for the first 200 meters; he really wanted to go out the land bridge route. Frequently I find that discretion is not only the better part of valor, it's only part that matters. In keeping with that concept I try not to be an unreasoning fascist, although I do generally enforce and promote the notion that it is my run and the dogs are all with me. If they really want to do something and it's no big deal we often do it. Thus, we went Ernie's way, but with him and Rufus on either end of the leash for a bit, just to get them to calm down. We went south to the chappa'hai and into the monte, then all the way north via the palapa-on-stilts road, to the hidden trail, south down the beach, back into the monte at Au Soleil Couchant and home via the monte: 10k according to Google Earth. With this group we absolutely flew, hardly stopping and only briefly when we did. It was chilly out and a little cloudy, so nobody felt much need for water, and everyone really wanted to air it out. The beach was disgusting. The mountains of seaweed that have been piled up by successive storms have gotten grosser and grosser as the ocean has chewed and pawed at them for days. I was planning on rinsing Eve off (rolled in poo), but none of us wanted to go in there, and the poo stink was honestly preferable, so we got off the beach quickly and I took a hose to Eve (and Chester) when we got home. Jack is an angel.
GRADE: A