Another day in Paradise

So seriously. Today is a day of thanks that God made a place with weather and climate such as here. Today was............. in the 70's, yesterday in the 80's.

I realized that people (myself included in the past) would spend money to visit this weather in the middle winter and here I am living it everyday.

The leaking pipes that were giving us water issues here were fixed today but took so long that I didn't have time remaining to "do" the other things on my "to do" list so.. we went for a walk. Hike to be specific.

At one of the entrances to our neighborhood, there is a road that leads off to a junk yard and monastery and next to that there is a road that looks like it would go to the trail that I have yet to find a way to get onto.. and I decided we should go for a walk.. and it was a tie between down/up our street or the bike trail or trying to get to the trail that runs behind our house..

So.. it turns out it was 1/2 mile straight uphill.
And at the top there was a water treatment facility with a touchpad to call someone. WHO? I'm not sure. How do I know that it calls someone? My youngest decided to push some buttons.

And there was no way to get to the trails or the path that runs behind our house (which I have seen signs that say it's not open to the public.. still trying to figure why they have them if they're just to be there and not be used for anything by anyone....)

So.. it was straight downhill back to the van.

and you know what's going to happen, right? steep hill, pavement drop offs on both sides of the pavement... Right. I knew, too- so I tell them DO NOT RUN down the hill. What do they do? yes, you are right- they RUN.

now 2 of the 4 have road rash on their foreheads.

And the entire way down the hill the dog howled. I think she was tired and upset that the kids were outrunning her. There were others there that also were there for a walk with their dogs. One laughed as we walked past, hearing her howl, saying "oh, that's a good hound dog, listen to that"

yeah. I listen to that daily. you should have heard her when the landscape irrigation people were here digging up pipes for hours..... and every morning when she thinks we should be up.. before the sun.. and now.. she'd having a dream and apparently there's something to howl at in her dream...