Road Trip!

      Bright and early tomorrow morning I'm going to jump into our Jeep Wrangler with my best bud Drew and head for Charleston, SC.  Its a long trip (I've made it once before) but since, for some inexplicable reason, I don't get to share the driving duties there will be plenty of naps along the way.

      My blogging itch is back (thanks Mary) and this is as good a time as any to get back in the saddle and start sharing.  Watch for my trip reporting.

She's Back!

      If you've read some of my blog posts you'll know that my Best Friends have brought me from Slovakia to America to live.  I've been here in Mt. Lebanon (Pittsburgh) now for almost two months and I'm adjusting just fine, thank you very much.  The one negative has been that one of my Best Friends had to return to Slovakia soon after she brought me to America to finish her work.

      Well, SHE'S BACK!!!!!!!

      She is now permanently reassigned to the United States and she will be staying with us full time from now on.  I am HAPPY!

      I will editorialize, however, by mentioning that immediately after her return from Kosice (like the very next day) she bought herself a brand new, and very snazzy, black car.  I've checked it out in the garage and I approve.  But....

      She hasn't taken me for a ride and its been almost two weeks!  What's the story?

      I can ride in the Jeep (our other car).  My other Best Friend and I go everywhere in the Jeep.  By the way, he took me to a place named "Camp Bow Wow" earlier today for an interview.  It seems that I passed the interview (which involved pleasing a twenty-something female and putting up with a whole herd of other dogs) and I received some type of certificate that lets me go back anytime I (my Best Friends) want.  Hmmmmm.

      I just said, "herd of dogs."  That's not right.  Its called a "pack" I think in English.  Personally, whatever it's called, it's over-rated.  A bunch of slobbering, barking, sniffing, farting, panting, hairballs.  I like it just me and my Best Friends.

      But the BIG NEWS is...    SHE's BACK!!!!!   And soon she'll take me for a ride in the new black car.

 

A New World View

      For the first two years of my life back in the old country (before I came to live with my Best Friends) I really didn't understand much of the world beyond my everyday, canine-centric experiences.  It has always, however, been obvious to me that there is a whole lot going on in the world.  But comprehending all, or even some, of it was out of my reach.  That all changed when I moved into my Best Friend's flat in Kosice and discovered TV news.  Well, it didn't change immediately.  First I had to master English which took me about a month.  Quite different than Slovak but it seems that I must have a knack for languages and I am nothing if not attentive.  Anyway, after gaining some fluency, just listening and not speaking obviously (did I really need to tell you that?), I started to pay attention to the news shows that were always on the TV during the day.  We watched mostly CNBC and CNN but we also tuned into the BBC and Sky News occasionally.

      Since coming to America my viewing habits haven't changed too much.  We still watch CNN and CNBC a lot but we also catch a good deal of MSNBC.  For some reason we seem to stay away from Fox News.  I don't just watch TV with my Best Friends but I also watch a lot of it when I'm by myself.  My Best Friends usually leave the big screen TV on in the family room and tuned to a news channel whenever they leave.  I can crawl up on the couch (a very favorite place of mine) and really concentrate on what's reported when I'm alone.  I haven't mastered changing the channels yet but that will surely come with time.

      In addition to TV news programming we also get two newspapers.  Now I would be lying to you if I tried to tell you that I can read.  I'm a dog.  But one of my Best Friends spends a good deal of time every morning with the newspaper and he has a habit of making comments about what he's reading to me (I don't think that's strange, do you?) especially when what he's reading seems to upset him.  We get the Wall Street Journal six days a week and then on Sundays someone delivers us the big, fat Sunday New York Times.

      It may take me a few more month's of watching and listening to build my own view of the world but the task is well underway.  Its easy to see that there is a lot of diversity and contention out there about how to best interpret and understand the events of the day.  Dylan Ratigan and Chris Matthews on MSNBC sure don't share many common perceptions with the editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal, and Joe Kernen on CNBC's "Squawk Box" hardly ever agrees with anyone affiliated with the New York Times.  But I'm beginning to get the hang of it.  I really like Joe and Mika on "Morning Joe" (Mika especially).

      So, do you find it acceptable for a dog to have a "World View"?  If you don't then you may not wish to spend much time with my future blog posts.  If you can appreciate that a well traveled, highly intelligent, discerning, good looking Viszla can opine on the state of our world then come back often and I'll share what I think with you.

More from the Montour Trail

      Running has now become an every-other-day thing and yesterday it was back to the Montour Trail for 5.5 miles.  We started a bit before this milepost at about mile 30.4.

      Fairly early in the run we stopped so I could get my picture taken with a pretty waterfall.  Both the waterfall and I look much better than this in real life.

      This picture shows that great trail surface.  It feels soooo good to my feet.  We had been running for about 2 miles at this point so I look a little bit tired.  The photographer definitely looked worse than me.

      We ran across this bridge both going out and coming back along with two other bridges.
We took all the pictures on the way out so that we could run back without stopping.

      I'm a dog, and I do love to run!

      Running through the old railroad tunnel was a bit spooky.  Dark and cold.

      This was the last milemarker that we saw before turning around at about mile 27.25.

      Some cool water and grass to nibble is great along the trail.

Running, A Strangely Satisfying Experience

      I really want to talk about recreational (fitness) running today but first I have to unburden myself to my readers about a rather embarrassing moment I had yesterday morning.  I'm a dog, a Hungarian Viszula.  Not big, but not small either.  About fifty of what you metric-ignorant Americans call pounds.  (Oops, I really shouldn't make comments like that since I put on my new Allegheny County license tag earlier this week, thereby joining the ranks of Americans).  I have a big bark.  I'm told that its the bark of a far larger and more intimidating canine.  I'm proud of it.

      I also really like stuffed animals.  I own several.  Now, don't get me wrong, they're not the same as a having your very own live squirrel but those buggers are hard to catch.  Let's see, there's Peter (a rabbit wannabe), Wee Beastie (a sort of Frankensteinish cross between a squirrel and a ferret), Green Man (what can I say, he's green and sort of human-shaped), and Green Dog (self-explanatory I hope).  I'm very fond of carrying these guys around in my mouth, especially when I greet my friends.

      Well, yesterday morning a person from something called the Geek Squad came to our house to work on the upstairs TV.  I've told you how much I dislike the lady who comes in the afternoons and sticks papers in the front door slot.  Well, those same dangerous feelings were bubbling near the surface of my consciousness when this guy approached our home.  I just didn't like how he so casually walked down the steps, swaggered to the front door, and touched our house.  My BIG bark burst from between my teeth even before I realized what I was doing.  And I kept barking, trying to make myself sound as mean and intimidating as possible.

      The Geek just laughed at me.  How infuriating.  I kept barking.  He kept laughing.

      I guess its hard to be taken seriously as a ferocious guard dog with Wee Beastie firmly gripped in your mouth.  A lesson learned.

      However, everyone was amazed how well I could bark with a stuffed animal in my mouth.

      Enough of that.  Let's talk running.

      My Best Friend, Drew, and I have visited the Montour Trail twice in the last couple of days to run.  This isn't our first venture into running, but I think its going to lead us both to well beyond where we have been.

      When we ran in Kosice (Slovakia) it was always on the streets and sidewalks of the old town area.  Very congested with traffic and folk, cobblestones, concrete, asphalt, and distractions.  But the Montour Trail is way different.

      On Thursday we ran four miles (more than six kilometers for my highly intelligent and metric savvy European readers).  Today we ran five miles!  

      The trail is great.  I'm a dog so I don't normally wear footwear, even for running long distances.  I like it when I can get a grip with my toenails.  Heck, that's why I have them, right?  On hard surfaces I never feel totally secure, but on the Montour Trail, WOW.  It's made or some kind of dirt/stone mixture and feels GREAT to my feet.  My Best Friend did a lousy job of taking pictures today so I can't really show you how great the Trail is.  I told him about it and he promised to do better next time.  Let me just tell you that in our run today we crossed three bridges, went through a dark tunnel, saw a beautiful green area that I was informed is a golf course, and met several other runners AND their dogs.  I'm hooked.

      My Best Friend tries to tell me that he used to be a pretty good runner, but he runs upright and on only two feet!  How good could he ever have really been?  Now he runs at a pace that keeps me at a slow trot (OK, maybe a fast walk).  No complaints though.  If we can keep it up I think he may speed up.

      Let's consider our differences in the appreciation of running.  As already reported, he is bi-pedal (ugh!).  His real feet never make contact with that great trail surface since he wears socks and shoes (ugh!).  His nose is about five and half feet off the ground where the beauty and wonder of interestingly earthy smells are diffuse and unappreciated (Ugh!).  Actually, I don't think his nose is a good enough apparatus to appreciate those wonderful trail smells no matter where he puts it.  And, his eyes are up there above his nose.  How can he begin to see all the flutterings and details at the trail's edge?  And, have you ever watched a human run?  What's all this bobbing up and down about?  The arms churn at his sides, he huffs and puffs, and his head goes up and down.    

      Now let's take me in comparison.  At fifty pounds (compared to his 199) I glide effortlessly along the trail.  With four legs and four wonderful feet I trot with a steady gait that keeps my head on a swivel where I can turn my attention to anything of interest at a moment's notice.  My nose drifts just 18 inches off the trail surface and leads me everywhere I go.  Oh, that nose!  I know that I can't possibly explain to humans how much better my nose works than yours.  Just take my word for it that my sensory experience of five miles on the Montour Trail far surpasses anything that a human could possibly imagine.

      I'm a running fan!  I hope we make this a habit for along time to come.  

Let's Get More Serious, Dogwise

      No pictures this time.  Just some thoughts on this new place I find myself...  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

      I understand much of the Slovak language and I have a very good feeling for the culture of the Slovaks.  I was born there and grew up there and struggled there with my small family.  With Hungary just 20 miles to the South, Poland just North of the High Tatra Mountains, the Ukraine a little more than 40 miles to the East, and Austria way far to the East, I am a child of Central Europe.  I know that you may doubt that a dog could be this geographically aware, but humans are always underestimating the abilities of the dogs that share their lives.  Be assured that that underestimation is not reciprocated.  We are generally in awe of your (you human's) qualities, your things, your powers, your insight.  You always seem to be ahead of us, anticipating our needs and wants, uniquely able to either love or torture us, you are our terrible wager with the future.

      I now understand much of the English language also, although my feeling for the American culture is in its infancy.  Besides my best friends, Traci and Drew, I've only really met four other Americans thus far.  First were Mary and Dick.  They are our friends and live somewhere nearby, although I haven't visited them as yet.  Mary brought me a very nice gift and Dick smelled a bit like like some bars I've frequented in Kosice.  Beer smells really good, and I understand that Dick is a master brewer.  I can't wait to visit their house and have a chance to sip some samples of Dick's best efforts.  Nice folks.  We drank wine and watched something called NCAA basketball on the really big TV in the family room.  We had a nice TV in Kosice but this TV is way bigger.  I loved to watch Animal Planet in Kosice but I haven't found it yet on this monster.  So many things to do...
          
      The other two Americans I have met are Drew's relatives.  We (Drew, Traci and I) drove to a place called Mechanicsburg somewhere here in Pennsylvania to meet Drew's mother (Elizabeth) and his sister (Audrey).  What a great day!  They both really seemed to like me even though I think I was a bit over the top with the affection thing.  I need to learn how to show my affection without being quite so clingy.  Oh well, it went well despite me.

    It was Elizabeth's birthday!  We brought flowers and a card and we all went to a really nice restaurant for a long lunch (although I was not allowed in).  I am going to get seriously upset with this American aversion to dogs in restaurants and coffee shops.  Do you get a sense that there may be a theme coming in future blog posts?

      Audrey was a dog person.  I could smell her Malcolm on her.  Interesting.  I'm sure we (Malcolm and me) will meet nose-to-nose sometime in the fairly near future.

      Elizabeth was 91 years old yesterday.  I'm 3.  Wow!  Can you even begin to imagine how many experiences, and smells, and feelings she has had in her lifetime?  It makes my mind swim to think how much more she knows than I do, how much there is to learn from someone with so long a history, so rich a life, so deep an understanding of what's important, and what's not.  We invited her to come to Pittsburgh to visit us at the new house and I REALLY look forward to spending more time with her.  So much to learn!

      Well, its time for me to retreat to some other part of the house.  Drew and I have been preparing this blog post together but he has now turned the volume WAY up on the Les Miserables CD and it hurts my ears.  Without me, Drew will quickly run out of anything further smart to report.  So, until next time...  Sempre Reputo!
    



          

Settling In

      Sorry that I have ignored my readers for a couple of days but I've had a whole lot to new experiences to deal with.

      On Thursday morning the crew from Seward Fence Company finished installing my new fence around the back yard.  As you can see from the photos, I am now Queen of the Manor.

      There are many, many squirrels around but, so far, only one has dared to come into my   area.  Unfortunately I didn't see the scruffy little bugger until it was already halfway across the yard and traveling fast.  I closed the distance between us before he reached the fence but to my frustration he hopped between the bars just as I was about to grab him (or her).  Unfortunately, my head won't even fit between the bars let alone the rest of me.  Squirreling is going to take patience.

      I'm amazed how many cars there are here, and how big they are.  I think I have mentioned previously that I never took many car rides back in Slovakia, but that has all changed since coming to America.  I think I've already logged more than 20 hours in the back seat of one or the other of our two cars.  Back in Kosice the roads were mostly flat and fairly straight.  Boy, is that not the case here.  I am proud to report that I am well along on mastering the canine techniques needed to cope with the strange centrifugal forces that try to throw you around in a car when you go around corners and curves.  Strangely, I do seem to grasp the physics of this phenomena.  The head out the window thing, however, is going to take more work.

       And please, somebody explain to me who this person is that comes to the front door every afternoon and pushes pieces of paper through a slot.  I am not happy with that person and I have found myself barking really loudly at her when she walks across our yard in front of the big window in the living room.  There was NOTHING like this back in our flat in Kosice.  I'm usually pretty relaxed and friendly with humans but there's just something in my gut that tells me this lady is not my friend.  The only other people that I've felt this way about were the little old ladies in Kosice who would try to sell us flowers when my best friends and I were having a nice meal at one of the local restaurants.  They all looked pretty much the same and dressed alike.  They were short, plump, wore black boots and big skirts and ALWAYS had a cloth thing wrapped around their heads and tied off under the chin.  Scary ladies.  I always barked at them. 

       

      Every day that goes by leaves me with more questions to ponder.  Actually, I think "pondering" is a skill that America will help sharpen in me and I will try to share my "ponders" with you as I sort them out.  Such as...

      Why do Americans have so many more big cars than Slovaks?  A perhaps related question is why are Americans so much larger than Slovaks?

      Why can't I go into the coffee shop?  Heck, I'm sure that I'm cleaner and healthier than most of those people I see inside.  What's the point of being Man's-Best-Friend if you can't follow them everywhere and anywhere?  Have I mentioned that I really like coffee shops, that I behave great, I'm bilingual, I can't read a newspaper but I enjoy watching others read them, and I'm getting much better on "reflective" thought.  What other skills could you possibly need to enjoy a coffee shop?  And they smell soooo good!

      I'll be back tomorrow with more pondering.