I do so love Easter

No, I'm afraid it's not because of the real reason for the holiday, that would be hypocritical since I don't go to church any other time of the year. No, it's because of the stress free down time. It's been bliss just doing nothing. Bliss.

Friday, we had perfect weather. Perfect. It was rainy, bluster and cold all day long. Just like out of an English novel. Bliss. Since everyone else hates that kind of weather, I got to walk my dogs in total peace and it was wonderful.

Sat., the weather was rather better (in the traditional sense). As a matter of fact, it was absolutely glorious in the morning. Not even I could deny that it was beautiful. Fortunately for me, most people spent the morning asleep, after having been out the night before, so I still got to walk in relative peace. Oh wait. Hang on a min. They weren't asleep, they were all at the grocery store. I got there at 8:30 and it was already packed. You'd have though WWIII was right around the corner the way people were spending money. Honestly people, you are not going to starve to death just because the stores are closed on Mon. As a matter of fact, few of you will still want to eat come Mon., so just put that third loaf of bread back on the shelf. You won't need it.

Sat. afternoon I made a long overdue visit to Olga, the ex-owner of T. For those of you who have never heard of Olga before, she lives up on a hill away from other people, has rheumatism, is overweight, is 70 years old and has 13 dogs. This is not healthy in more ways than one, especially as she is a hoarder. Although she does have things on shelves and tables and there is room to walk, the combination of many, many ornaments, rheumatism and 13 dogs means that her house is not very clean. Now I don't mind the smell of dog, but it's worse in her place. We actually sat at a table in her garage, for which I am thankful, even though my tonsils hate me for it. Still, my sense of cleanliness is happy not to have to have spent the afternoon in her house. Don't get me wrong, Olga is a nice woman and means well, but she cannot see that her lifestyle isn't healthy and the dogs aren't as happy as she thinks they are. Yet they could have it worse. They have a warm place to be, a large garden to romp in and food. That's more than many dogs have. T however, decided early on that he would be much happier with me and my lack of 13 dogs, so that's how I wound up with him. He was a bit stressed to go back, and always is. He doesn't want to be left there. Anyway, she was glad of the visit, as she doesn't get many, and I'm glad she was glad. Unfortunately, by the time we left Olga's, the weather had turned rather nasty, even for my taste, and we actually only got a very short walk in. I don't often do that, but in the face of flying snow and clothes that were not warm, I enough allowed myself that luxury, took the dogs home, fed them and gave them a rawhide bone. They were just as happy as I was.

Sunday was again bliss. It snowed all day long (more or less) and walks were peaceful. It was also the perfect kind of snow - covered the fields, but melted on the roads. The only disadvantage was that my car was out in it and it took me 15 min. to get all the ice off this morning, or at least enough ice off of it to drive.

That brings me to this morning. I got up and took the dogs for their walk at the river. We were walking along quite happily when I saw something on the side of the path that looked like a dog curled up. I thought, no, it must be a blackened tree stump or something. We got closer only to find that it really was a dog curled up. It was 17°F / -8°C out. I thought it surely must be dead to just be laying there. However, it did pick its head up when Biscuit went up for a sniff, so I tried to see what was a matter. I didn't want to touch it too much for fear of being bitten, especially if it were injured and in pain. I couldn't see anything, but didn't know what to do with him. I couldn't get the car back to where he was, and he would have been too heavy to carry at the best of times, so I spent the next 10 min. coaxing him up. He had the oddest expression on his face when I spoke kindly to him. It was kind of like he was thinking wow, she sounds nice and I didn't know nice existed really. It was like he wanted to go all fuzzy and puppy like, but couldn't bring himself to trust me. He finally did get up and teetered around a bit. I tried to take him back to my car, but he wasn't going to go. Instead, he started walking in the other direction, which was the direction I was originally going in anyway. We walked, I found out he had the runs (poor mite) and he started too look a bit better. His walking got less and less stiff and I figured that I could call the local pound and take him there if he made it that far. It would have only been another 15 min. walk from where I had planned on turning back from home. However, by the time we got to that point, he was looking fairly good and actually picked up the pace. I stopped, but he just kept on going like he knew where home was, so I let him go. He was probably some farmer's dog who was out all night an figured he'd just like a bit of a kip. No point in going home when he probably sleeps outside anyway. I hope he's OK.

Just so I've mentioned knitting in my knitting blog, I have started the Eris and am LOVING knitting it. It's really fun. I was a bit daunted by the seeming complexity of the pattern at first, after all, it did look more difficult that the Rogue, but you just have to take it one step at a time, do what she says and it all comes together. I've got the right side of the collar done and have started on the left. It's so much fun and I'm really glad I've got time to knit on it this week. The only problem I've really had with it is not wanting to stop knitting, even when I'm too tired. I had to tink a couple of rows more than once last night before I gave in. I did finally see the light and stopped before I did more harm than good. It was a good thing too because my problem was that I had lost my place and was trying to knit too high up on the pattern. I really do need the sleep alarm thing. Must go back and see if I can find my plans for that.