We finally made it back out to Beaver Hills on the weekend and it was glorious.  We met only five people on our walk and three of them were a father with his two little boys who loved our dogs.    The sky was blue, the paths were dry and the frogs were singing.  It was a slice of heaven.

Yesterday at work I had a patient whom I remembered.  She's missing an ear and her thyroid glad was moved for safety and placed in her arm.  We talked a little about swearing and how much we enjoy it and then I poked her with a needle for her IV.   "Fuck, fuck, fuck.  Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!", she started yelling and swearing up a storm and then I remembered her very vividly.  I had to laugh and told her that although I think she is a lovely woman, I still prefer dudes. She laughed too and said, "I like penises too."  Good thing I'm always professional at work:)

After work we decided to go for a walk at the now reopened off leash park nearby.  We walked there most days after work after we adopted Heidi so had only walked through the trees in the winter.  We started off and it was a little muddy but manageable.  Then we got a little further and there were pools of standing water on the pathway;  we had a lot of rain on Sunday and Monday.  We made it to the last hill before leaving the dog park and on our way down the hill through the trees the pathway became more of a river/lake with lots of mud thrown in.

Heidi is fine off leash but Lucy needs to stay on her leash because she bolts after rabbits and we've grown fond of her.  So now we're bush whacking our way through the undergrowth which is mostly dogwood, a lot of wild roses with lots of thorns and a lot of dead wood for good measure with pointy bits sticking up with a small beagle lunging at the end of her leash and getting caught in every tree and shrubbery.

We tried that for awhile but could see not way out onto the dry field that we knew was ahead of us.  Finally it was wade through the mud and water or be stuck there forever.  I took two steps in the mud and couldn't get my foot out.  Actually, I could get my foot out but not my shoe.  The big guy hung onto me and Lucy while I pulled my shoe free from the mud.

At that point we decided the water was the safer route.  I don't like water and I don't like wet feet.  I love swimming but water that I don't know what's at the bottom freaks me out.  I rolled up my pants and started wading with a few squeals, convinced I was stepping on something rotting or half alive.  The water only came up about ten inches but still felt freaky.

We finally made it out of the trees and scrub, onto the dry grass field, looking somewhat bedraggled and muddy.  When we got home, both dogs had sponge baths on the back deck and the big guy and I got cleaned up.  It wasn't funny at the time but looking back it was.  Well, now we know.  Stay out of the woods after a rain and in the spring time.  We now have local knowledge:)

After the mud and clean up, the big guy went and bought us some BBQ which was delicious.  The whole thing was farce but we had a good laugh.