I woke up before the alarm again. I really wish my body would let me sleep through the night. Or is it my mind waking me up? My soul?
At the alarm, I got up and went for my morning mile walk even though it’s a holiday. It seems like the walk is my trick for getting out of bed, and it works. Getting up for the sake of getting up doesn’t work, but getting up to go for a walk… I guess it feels more like backpacking. I hope I’ll be able to keep it going if we get some good snow on the ground. I’ve got Yaktrax I can put on.
I had a doctor’s appointment in town this morning, so getting up for the walk was important. I could have ridden my trike into town for it, but I wanted to get more steps in. So I left my house about 5 after 8 and walked my way into town. It’s not quite 2 miles to the clinic, but it’s very close. The appointment went well. I’m pretty much fine, physically. The grieving I’m going through is totally normal.
After the appointment, I stopped by the general store and picked up some supplies. My dustpan recently broke, so I needed to replace it.
Then I headed back, planning to stop by a neighbor’s house to return a dish. Now, there’s this one house with a loose dog that always barks at me when I’m on the sidewalk, and kind of runs up to the edge of the sidewalk. Until today, I thought that the dog was just a barker and wouldn’t be any more aggressive with that as long as I didn’t make any move towards its house. This time, I did not look at the dog, just walked forward and tried to ignore the barking while I got past the house.
The dog charged up to me and bit at my leg, tearing two holes in my pants (Ambrose’s pants that I was wearing). I was shocked and started yelling and swearing at the animal. I took a picture of it and of my pant leg. But I didn’t know what to do as far as reporting it. There aren’t any police in town, and since I wasn’t injured there didn’t seem to be a reason to call the sheriff’s office. But I did post about it on Facebook, because my neighbors should know.
When I got to the neighbor whose dish I was returning, they said they always used the other side of the street when walking that way with their dog because of that aggressive dog. I had a good visit with them, and got to see some of the art being worked on currently. I feel comfortable around artists, and ended up staying for a like 90 minutes.
Then I walked the rest of the way home, thankfully not passing the aggressive dog again. Instead, when I was close to home, I got a corgi escort. The neighbor corgi has nipped at my heels when I’m running, but not to the point of actually touching me. More like herding. Today, he was mostly running ahead, and escorted me all the way home.
I ate lunch when I got home and tried to figure out how to get rid of my headache. I tried some Excedrin Migraine, but it didn’t do anything. It took a couple hours, but I finally figured out that it was what I call a poop headache. It won’t resolve until I get out what’s stuck inside. At least now I know what to do to treat it. Lots of warm liquids, cold liquids, and a laxative if absolutely necessary. Liquid diet, so it’s a good thing I got some protein smoothies at the store.
I was just starting to get ready to do my Move U exercises, finally, when I realized that even though the dog didn’t get tear or cut my long underwear, I did indeed have a very small scrape on my calf where it bit at me. Once I realized that, I had to email in a report to the sheriff’s office. I wasn’t exactly sure who to contact based on the website, so I picked someone and hopefully they can help me reach the right person.
I also washed the area, and applied my tea tree eucalyptus ointment. I then put a sterile bandage on top since I’d be on the floor for my exercises. The internet recommends seeing a doctor for a dog bite, but this is more of a graze or a scrape, so I think I’ll be okay with just keeping it clean and keeping an eye on it.



Because of that delay, I didn’t get my exercises done until nearly 7, but I did complete day 2 of week 3 of the level 2 Hips & Glutes program. It’s such a sweaty workout. Lots of slow squatting. Somewhere in all that sweating my headache dissipated. I’ve had that happen in the past, but it usually comes back once I cool back down. It’s starting to do that now.
Quite a mixed day. Good checkup, good visit, one bad dog, two good dogs, a terrible headache, and a good, sweaty workout. I wish I’d met the neighbors I visited with today before Ambrose passed. I think he would have liked them, and they would have liked him.
I really ought to do dishes tonight, but I’m not sure I’m going to get the motivation. They might wait until the next family zoom, tomorrow night. I mean, I did get bit by a dog today. Kind of.