Dog training in the park

Great day for biking in the park, which I did. Very humid, so the speed is quite cool and wonderful. Best not to stop - that's when the sweat comes. I'm trying to train JJ to be more obedient to my commands. She's 8 and, I hate to say it, doesn't really come when called unless you get really, really enthusiastic. Now I have tiny treats in my pocket to give her when I call her name without shouting and she comes. Took a while to start. She has the incredible doggy sens of smell, and wouldn't leave my side as long as she smelled the treats. Anyway, I biked around the Nethermead, and she stayed pretty much right at my heels (wheels, actually). Every so often she will run back across the meadow to Ber, but we figure I'm the Prodigakl Person because I keep going away and coming back, so she is more concerned with keeping up with me.

She can keep up for a while at 5-7 MPH. At 9 she falls back, but I slow down a bit, call her name, and she comes. 8-12 MPH is my comfort zone in the Park. Sometimes, coming down the big hill,k I am up to 20, and absolutely terrified. A sign of aging. Once, I'd be thrilled and excited. Now I imagine the tire will burst - I'll die. A car will come in from a side road, I'll die. Martians will land right in front of me - I'll hit them and die. The awareness of mortality!

The three singletons are fine, grooming themselves by the lake. No one was feeding any of the wild life today.

Update/hearsay on the alleged proposed toilets at the Wellhouse. Ed tells me that he found the Parks Dept. Budget somewhere on line. $900,000 has been allocated to turn the Wellhouse into bathrooms. He also says the older fisherman say there used to be bathrooms there, so it wouldn't be that big a deal to update them.

Nothing is still happening at Vanderbilt playground. Wouldn't want those sprinklers to be available in the HOT weather, now would we. What is the delay?