Don, you have put your finger on the reason for the volunteer work I space out through the week. The society at the museum and the botanic garden are therapeutic as well as personally satisfying from a contribution standpoint. Achieving a good balance of time spent at home puttering around while also getting out and doing social stuff is the goal.

This morning I got a photo of the line of pecan-shaped dog droppings left on the way out the door by the elderly Labrador retriever. He's 14, deaf, terribly arthritic in his hips, and incontinent poop-wise. If he hasn't been outside for a while and starts barking, chances are he's going to drop them right there, or if he's just getting up in the morning. I keep a dustpan and brush handy to scoop up a couple of times a day. We can sometimes go a week at a time without any. My goal is to keep him on a healthy diet to keep everything a good consistency for easily rolling onto the dustpan.

I loaned my "Weed Popper" to the neighbors next door, and while I stood in their backyard talking my dogs stood and stared at me through the chain link fence, clearly chuffed (in the displeased form) that I was visiting and hadn't taken them with me. I can walk the girls but Zeke needs a very careful tour around a very small area with his arthritis. He wants to go, but can't go far.

I remind myself of WYSIWYG's "Dog World" conversations. I wonder how Susan is doing?