A Season of Change

This week I resigned my job of 29 years and am beginning the transition to move closer to family in Michigan.   I decided to take one more big camping trip to the Western US.  Scarlett. Zak and I are leaving July 7 for Bozeman, the Sawtooth Mts of Idaho (my favorite place in the continental US), the San Francisco Bay area, Sequoia National Park, Crater Lake,  Priest Lake,  Idaho and Glacier National Park!   We'll be gone three weeks; mostly tenting, but spending a few days with friends in California too.    I've taken some big trips with the dogs before but never one this long.   Am I crazy?   Stay tuned for the answer.

We'll be home about a week and then leave for the North Shore of Lake Superior, drive the loop all the way around the lake and spend about ten days at the cabin at Au Train.    By the time I get home, summer will be winding down and I will start seriously looking for a new place to live and work.    It will become my retirement home in a few years, so I'm more focused on finding the right house than the right job.   I love my home here so much that it will be hard to let it go.

Splooting

Yesterday on Good Morning America they shared a clip of a corgi puppy running across the floor and sliding into a perfect sploot. Corgi puppies are SO stinkin' cute, and that clip brought back memories of when Zak was a puppy.    Living on a busy street, I would take him outside regularly and on more than one occasion, a perfect stranger drove by, turned onto the frontage road and stopped to admire him.   One time I caught a cab driver, between calls, sitting in front of my house watching Scarlett and Zak play in the yard.   

Urban Dictionary defines 'sploot' as "The position a corgi takes, lying flat on its belly with his/her legs spread out." Of my four corgis, only Dee Dee did a classic sploot. Before I knew the word, I called it her 'flying squirrel' pose.

Scarlett lies with her back legs off to one side - sort of a modified sploot.    Tim's dog, Elvis, often took this same position. 

Zaccheaus does an inverted sploot!   His legs are tucked underneath him, facing forward.   This boy LOVES to be outdoors and will spend the entire day resting in the grass or watching the cars go by if I let him.

Princess usually took this position - one back leg straight out and the other was often tucked underneath her.  I suspect this was her position in the womb because it was natural to her. 

And THIS is a PERFECT sploot.   Doesn't get any better than this.   Dee Dee had broad hips so the sploot was even wider.  This picture brings back memories!   I adore Scarlett and Zak and they have brought me great joy, but I still miss my girls.    Just like children, no two corgis are alike.