Nightcrawlers

Since we moved to Arizona and I became unemployed (outside the home), I've taken on two jobs...pool boy and dog walker.  The pool boy job has been pretty simple until now, but is starting to be a bit more challenging now that summer is upon us.  As for the dog walks, she generally gets two a day.  The first is in the mornings after everyone goes to school. Most evenings, Mark and I take the dog on a walk after dark, usually just before of after the kids go to bed.  It's good to talk and debrief our day, and for the dog to get out before bedtime.  She's come to expect it.  Now, if I go into the bedroom after dinner she starts to do the happy dance, assuming that I'm getting my shoes on, and then we're going to walk.

We have a standard route in the evening, with a few variations, and Lyric knows the route well.  She's not happy when we turn back early to skip one of the loops.  She looks at me as if to say, "seriously?  You're only giving me half a walk?" as she pulls to the left while we turn back right.  But some days, that's the way it is.

Since our routine began, Mark and I regularly see a man ouside his home doing yard work.  Unusual since as I said, it's dark.  I think we first noticed him at Christmas, when he set up a light display that went about 50 feet into the air...a Christmas tree outline with an angel in it.  We didn't think it was so strange then, since we thought maybe he just wanted to see what the lights really looked like, and you can only tell that when it's dark.

Since then, we've seen him outside gardening, working on his car, and doing general maintainance on the house and yard.  I've come up with a couple theories about this man.  First I thought he must do shift work, so he's sleeping when we're all awake, and then has to do the work in the evenings.  Then I thought maybe he had that disease where he was "allergic" to sunlight, and had to be outside at night.  Last night when we passed him, I joked that perhaps he was a vampire, and could only be out at night.

But today, I think I figured it out.  He's a NightCrawler. It's officially too hot to take the dog for a walk at 8:30 am.  By the time I get home a half hour later, I'm sweaty and exhausted.  I told Mark last night that I'm going to have to take her when I get up, but I didn't this morning because I realized, though I'm a early morning riser, I have absolutely no desire to take the dog on a walk before I've had my morning coffee, a bit of the news, and lounged around for a bit. 

But as the summer temps begin to heat up, (and it's not yet May 15) I think I am realizing that I'm going to need to be a NightCrawler, too.  The local weather guy has started giving this warning, "It may be great when you leave in the morning to exercise, ride your bike, run, climb a mountain trail, etc,  but by 7 am it's 80 degrees, but 10 am it's 90 degrees, and by noon it's 100"  Oy! 

I think the only way the dog is getting two walks is if they are both in the dark. And I think the job of pool boy is getting more appealing...if I can clean the pool from in the pool.  It's Arizona, and Summer's here!