Still Looking...

I really thought that I had a match.  I’ve been looking for new running shoes for so long and I picked up a pair of La Sportiva’s .  I’m not sure what I was thinking with them , as they were the opposite of most shoes I like.  But you know, they felt good in the store.  Dont’ they always??

But on my feet, on the trail, up and down the mountain?  They felt like WAY too much shoe. After wearing shoes like Altras, Newtons and even my favorite original Brooks Pure Grit, this shoe did not have enough room in the toe box .  I had even sized up half a size, but my toes were hitting the very hard toe guard and that was fairly uncomfortable.  The laces were annoyingly long.  Sure, I didn’t lace the top hole but that was because the tongue was also huge and uncomfortable. The laces also tended to come undone, despite double knots.   They did have excellent traction, especially descending, I’ll give them that.  That feature was probably the only thing I did like about them.

But overall , it was just too much shoe.  They seem more like a nice hiking shoe (for someone else) but I was not comfortable wearing them running , or actually wearing them at all.  So glad REI has such an excellent  return policy.    I’ll have to keep looking…What are you wearing ??

Tuesday Afternoon Fun

You know lately, all I want to do is wander around in the mountains with my dog.  Is that so wrong?   Here are a few shots from our Tuesday afternoon at the "lake"....

Someone pulled the plug....

It's okay, there's still MUD!

There's not much of summer left.  How are you spending your final days of the season?  Heading back to school?  Sending off the kids?  Sneaking in some last vacation days?  I hope it's all great!

Dogs and Houseplants....

This is a  quick post to relate something scary that happened with Mae last night.  We were getting ready for bed and she wanted to go out on the porch for a drink, (she has a bubbler fountain on porch) so I opened the door to let her out.  She came back inside and my husband yelled to me that she had something in her mouth.  Well, it was part of a silver jade plant that is in a pot on the porch, been there all summer along with  Aloe and other succulents.  We pulled the leaf out of her mouth and within a minute she started having what appeared to be an asthma attack, wheezing and having difficulty breathing!!  It lasted about 10 scary minutes and finally she was ok!!  A  quick check online though told me something I didn't know....Jade and Aloe are toxic to dogs!  While it's not likely they will consume enough to poison themselves, they can have irritation, stomach upset and other symptoms.  I had seen Mae nibble the ends of the aloe but never thought much about it.  Who knows why at 11 pm she decided to start eating a jade plant that she has sat next to all summer??  Dogs!!!  Anyway, just a heads up if you love succulents and dogs....like Lilies and cats, they might not go together!

And of course, the obligatory photo of Mae....keeping cool on a hot day in a mountain stream!