Allie, Christmas Decor, Protests and a Virtual Stroll

We had a bit of a scare with Allie last week. She wasn't eating and she was restless at night and whimpering a little. We've also noticed that she's been losing weight. I took her in to the vet and found that her weight is down from 12.1 lbs in August to 11.2 lbs. That's no small amount for a pup he size.

The doctor noticed a slight heart murmur which she said is not at all uncommon for a dog her age. More importantly, though, she felt around and determined she had a backed up digestive tract. She suggested fish oil caplets or something similar added daily to her diet to aid in moving things along. It seems to be working. At 13 years old we were both worried that something more serious was the matter. She's still not quite her normal self but we're hopeful that she'll continue to improve.

I've been leaving Allie at home when I take Toby and Charlie out walking. Toby loves these cooler temps in the 30s and 40s. He wants to run between all of their stops which is really impressive for an older guy. Toby is fully extended on his leash ahead of us as I'm running to keep up while Charlie is fully extended on his leash and lagging behind. We did a 2.3-mile walk a few days ago and he had us all running nearly the entire way.

We've saved ourselves a lot of work this year with our minimalist approach to Christmas. This is the extent of our outdoor decor which is quite a departure from our usual display. Typically we've got a large tree in front of our living room window but the past two years we've been content to use our smaller tree to the right. Tammy set out Rachel's nutcrackers we've collected for her over the years and that's about it. This works for me!

Tammy was in the uptown area of downtown Minneapolis yesterday morning protesting Wells Fargo Bank for their investment in the Dakota Access Pipeline. She's convinced me that we need to close out our accounts with Wells Fargo and move our money over to the credit union where we already have accounts. She's right and I actually should've done this a while back when we learned that our accounts were among those that had been tampered with by bank employees looking to generate additional fees for the bank. The only real hassle is in setting up electronic transfers for paying bills and a couple of other automatic withdrawals. If you're also considering breaking up with your bank, check out this link.

I was looking through some boxes of my mom's photos yesterday when a manila envelop spilled its contents out. Inside was my dad's naturalization certificate. I noticed an address on it from when our young family lived on Turner St. in Detroit before I was born. I believe we were actually there for the first few weeks of my life. I don't recall ever seeing any photos of the house so I entered the address from my dad's certificate into Google Maps and took a look around the neighborhood. There are still some well-kept homes but lots of very rundown homes as well. Here's a street view of the home. I wish I had my mom here to tell me stories about their time spent there. I suppose I was too busy to hear them when she was still with us.

Edit: My brother just informed me that I was actually born in a different home at 18676 Lennane St. in Detroit and that the home on Turner appears to have been razed. Our home would've been in the empty lot to the right in the link above for Turner. I'll leave both links in my blog.

I was on a walk last week and heard a large flock of geese overhead coming up from behind me (video below). I turned to look and saw the largest flock I'd ever seen heading east. It was quite a sight.

It's time to go and see what my next walk has to offer but first I need to go and "run" with Toby and Charlie.