Questions I never ask myself

Are you ever overpowered by your legacy?

Bellingham

So humom and I have gone to look at yet Another place to live. The guy isn't here yet, but the landscape is gorgeous, so of course humom is doing what she always does when the view is overwhelming -- she gets down on one knee and starts photographing the Mallie in front of it.

A car, obvious rental, comes creeping around the steep cliff -- this time humom thinks it might be amusing to live vertically, hanging over the ocean with the north shore surf pounding below, no thanks says the Malamute --  and the people make the usual cooing Isn't she cute noises.  Humom is slightly embarrassed until the lady in the car says, "We have a Malamute too!"  Ears up, nose in the wind -- where??  But no, their Mallie is back home in Bellingham. But of course they, too, would be photographing him in the beautiful Maui landscape.

So aloha and woos to unknown Mallie in Bellingham, no doubt a special doggie day care full of happy Mallies and their prey back on the mainland.  --- Missy out

Camping!

Roughing it at my Auntie Shel and Uncle Clay's is really very rough, as you can see.  I have to sleep in a tent -- poor little delicate Malamute me, what with my fur coat and all -- on a King-size bed!!  The thing about this tent is, it's inside the house!  I know, right?

So you and I know it gets cold at night up here in the Maui upcountry -- like MAYBE in the 50s -- and it's totally windy.  Which gives me a fabulously fluffy coat.  And might possibly call for a tent or doghouse on rainy nights, thank you very much, now that I'm never you mind how old.  But a tent in a house?  Naturally, humom informs me that this invention is for the benefit of humans, not of Mallies.  Well, duhr.  It's because sometime geckoes and other little friends tend to leap down from the beams and into the female hair below.  Apparently, there are those among Auntie Shel's guests who object to this.  I would not have thought it.  Excellent entertainment, ladies! 

Anywoo, I'm in the tent for super-wussy ladies without any prospect of reptilian amusement.  From the picture you might suppose that humom will sleep in my crate.  This is not so!  She and I both sleep on the King-size bed.  Oddly enough, this is larger than the Queen-size we have been sleeping on.  I have not succeeding in finding any walls to have a good stretch against.  This is always followed by the most pleasing sound of humom thunking onto the ground.  Perhaps tents are made without any walls for a Malamute to brace herself against.  Clearly a design flaw. 

After such a sluggish night, a Mallie needs to stretch her legs running warp-speed up and down the road just outside the gate.  Too quickly for the camera to capture!!  Then inside for a refreshing snooze.  --- Missy out

Sometimes I worry ...

about humom('s driving). With me in the car. In the front seat.  She has a seat belt around her [more than ample] waist. My seat belt protects my right rear leg. Wow.

Anywoo,  humom was a little silly about rainbows on Oahu, but let's face it, that's pretty much what there was to enjoy, so whatever.  A decent neon rainbow over the brutalist buildings -- nice contrast.  But since we've been back on Maui -- pause for Halleluiah chorus - she's become a menace.  We wake up and she springs to the window. Yodels "rainbow!"  Well, duhr.  Kula to Makawao sweeping over to Maui Meadows -- somewhere there's going to be a rainbow.  Every day.  Backflips not required.

So we drive into Town, which requires something called a Costco card.  Explain to me, please, why the human approach to hills is to ascend/descend in the most circuitous and bumpy manner possible?  The intelligent person of the canine persuasion susses out the most convenient and direct route and simply heads up- or down-hill, with a merry view-halloo, or silently if Mallie.  None of us would subject her best friend to a nauseating, bone-shaking, serpentine torture ride.  Esp. while hanging out the window at [insert # per hour that will not attract MPD] at an angle not in the direction of travel, trying to photograph a rainbow with the music app and cursing the iPhone in several languages.  News flash: the iPhone camera does not like rainbows, learn the lesson already.

--- Missy out

Shortest walk ever

Wow. Our evening walk was about this short: front door of hotel -- beach walk -- back. Yet it took as long as our usual meandering stroll. I blame humom, of course. First, she put a red, white and green lei on me. This did not exactly decrease the number of people needing to stop and coo over the "snow dog" and exchange Mele Kalikimakas.

Then, she took me out just before sunset, when every visitor and resident on Oahu hangs out in Waikiki. Everyone and his Boston terrier.

And strangest of all, she was in a very patient mood. She didn't try to march me along, and let everyone pet me who wanted to. Even the sticky kids eating shave ice. Did she let me eat their shave ice? Not so much.

We visited Deena and the circus performers practicing in the park. Handsome Tony the juggler was there and remembered to greet me. I enjoy the jugglers -- tossing balls to themselves. There are a lot of unskilled humans in the parks who toss balls away and expect their dogs to bring them back. They could take lessons in juggling.

Among the onlookers was a family with a young girl in one of those wheelchairs, like the old men in the park hang out in, or the fat lady in the hotel who always smells like cigarette smoke. But this was a super-fancy motorized job. The girl didn't smell like smoke, and looked at me, so I moseyed on over to say hi. The mom and other kids gushed over me, of course, and the mom moved the girl's hand to approximate petting me. I rested my head in her lap so she could feel the weight on her legs and she grinned from ear to ear. For some reason, I felt happy. Weird.

On the way home we met a couple of kids in a "stroller" -- stupid name, the kids are specifically NOT strolling, but sitting down. The little sister had her leg in a cast, a most unusual aroma -- quite musty and unwashed, with bits of food and some plaster and Vetrap. Humom didn't let me get a good lick in. I did get some good snootfuls, causing the mom to coo how sweet that the doggie was trying to heal her little girl. Whatever.

--- Merry Christmas, Missy out

Trades

Today Missy is arrow-shaped, all sleek and pointed. Her ears are plastered back, fur ruffled, eyes slitted. She is moving almost faster than I can keep up -- making her sniff stops joint-wrenching. This is one frisky canine. What roiled the Malamute blood? Cool, even cold trade winds tearing down the mountains, blowing out the vog and sending the sand stinging, rows of sailboats line-dancing back and forth in front of the setting sun, the palm trees tossing ... Missy is loving it!

Our Marathon

Thanks, Jerry, for the img. We had a great Honolulu Marathon. For the first time on Oahu, we got to wake up naturally -- no screech, crash or howl of dumpster trucks, no construction hammering and roaring ... just silence! A blissful foretaste of mornings on Maui, I hope.

Rhoda and I took beach stuff in her convertible and zoomed up to the North Shore, stopping in cute Haleiwa. We watched some excellent surfing at Banzai Pipeline -- Kauai's Sea Bass triple crown champion -- and had decent Mexican food at Chollo's.

On our return, I had a call from Visa that my credit card was being used fraudulently. Dealt with that for a couple of days, then realized that my car was gone. Urk. That's where my card had been. While Rhoda and I were on the shore, someone was busy stealing my car and racking up charges. Nice.

It took Missy several days to recover from all the spandex-clad hugs, kisses and squeals of So Cuuuuute! after the marathon. The neon sneakers are a bit hard to take, but do wake us up in the morning. It'll be nice to get back to regular, casual runners on our morning walks -- it's been weird being invisible to the hard-core runners who are so into their iPods, their pulse or whatever that they don't notice they're about to crash into a Malamute or a substantial redhead.