November 26, 2009 – Palm Desert

Let me say it and get it out of my system first, before I get morose and screw up the blog; it’s Thanksgiving, and guess who didn’t get even a single scrap of turkey? Everybody’s faithful, furry friend, that’s who! There, that’s out of the way. Otherwise, not a bad day. We watched the Macy’s Parade in New York; I’m glad we weren’t there in person, those huge balloons would have freaked me out. While we were having lunch, we watched part of a dog show from Philadelphia; some those dogs looked really silly, but the Golden that was entered was really a handsome guy; unfortunately, he lost. After lunch, we got into the truck and headed into downtown Palm Desert. Don had asked Geri if she’d like to go the fancy shopping district, El Paseo, and she was thrilled at the idea. Until she quickly came to the recognition that today all of the shops would be shut. There was quite a dust-up over that, as this is one of Don’s usual tricks, offering to take Geri shopping when all the stores are closed. But we wound up going to El Paseo anyway, just to window shop and walk. We strolled through a really nice group of stores that had several gardens and statues in them. I got Don to take some pictures, which he might even post some time. While I was looking through the glass door of a shop, a man opened it and asked if he could give me a cookie. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. What a thrill!

We got back in the truck and went up to the park at the Government Center. There’s a little creek that runs through it, and some good sized ponds that were wall-to-wall ducks! Now, I like ducks, and ordinarily I might chase one for fun; but not when there are several thousand of them, they could gang up on me and nibble me to death. So I just watched them and smiled. The park is really big, and we wandered through part of it, admiring the statuary and the plantings. We came across a Holocaust Memorial in the park, and I asked Don what it was about. When he told me, I had a lot of trouble understanding what he said. When it finally became somewhat clear to me, I was very troubled. It meant to me that humans could do terrible things to each other that dogs would never even consider, even if they were cable of doing those things. It makes me really wonder who should be in charge in this world.

We went back to the coach, and Geri and Don got ready to go over the club house for Thanksgiving dinner. I took the position that I still hadn’t gotten my four o’clock walk yet, regardless of the afternoon’s excursions, and Don agreed to take me for a little stroll. We were walking toward a group of RV’s when a Chihuahua came racing up to me, barking furiously. It sounded to me like an invitation to join him and his party, so I chased him back to his RV, where there was a large group of people. I rounded the end of the RV at high speed, and found myself in the middle of a large group of small dogs, who immediately went ballistic. It was like an explosion of tiny canines, all of them scared, mad, and loud. Well, at least the humans were friendly, laughing and petting me and saying how beautiful I was. Don was screaming at me. It took a minute to disengage from the friendly humans (who had a lot of good food left on the table) and the vicious snarling pack of wanna-be dogs who were planning to eviscerate me. Don grabbed me and put the leash on like he wanted to hang me with it.

So they headed off for their feast, and were gone for a couple of hours. I napped. When they came back, they told me about what a good time they had, swapping RV stories with other RV’ers at their table, eating smoked turkey leg, stuffing, mashed potatos, and other stuff that doesn’t interest me that much. But I think that a little piece of turkey could have been stashed away for me. Well, maybe I can understand Don not feeling that warm about me, but Geri? Oh, well.

We’re out of here tomorrow, early they say. We’ll find out what early means. Check with you tomorrow!