Lola is my new trainer/coach: TOLT

~ Chocolaterunsjudy

It’s another sad  Thinking Out Loud , but there are some funny bits, too. The soup that turned into pasta, and tricking my husband into thinking I’d shoveled a path on the driveway.

You’ve been warned!

Pho pasta, anyone?
I have a recipe for Pho soup that I really like and have made a few times. What’s more, my husband likes it too.

Yesterday was cold, y’all; it never even made it to 20F. Perfect day for Pho (Vietnamese chicken noodle soup), right? I need lots of healthy food right now to combat all the stress I’ve been going through for the last 3 months.

I’ve always made this soup with fresh rice noodles from Trader Joes, but I didn’t have time for a trip and I used dried rice noodles instead. With the fresh noodles, you pour the hot soup over them and voila!

With the dried noodles, you do need to boil them briefly. Only they just soaked up all the broth and were very al dente.

I did just read that the carbs in  pasta al dente isn’t absorbed as readily as thoroughly cooked pasta. One can hope . . .

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Lola prefers her bed to being carried around

Lola is not pleased
No, it has nothing to do with Chester; well, in the end, yes, it really does. She truly does not seem to notice he’s gone.

But I’ve taken to carrying her more.

Chester loved being held like a baby, long before he got sick, and I spent many days carrying him like that up and down our stairs, and sometimes just holding him that way.

Lola has never liked it, no doubt due to her back issues, but I’ve worked with her over the years to tolerate it (you just never know when a vet/stranger might need to hold her that way).

Usually, though, I hold her so that her head is over my shoulder. I would give anything to be holding Chester again, so I’ve taken to carrying Lola a lot more. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer there.

But she sure can move!
We had gotten so used to Chester’s pace, which was very, very slow with lots of stops.

I took Lola out for a very short walk on Tuesday — it was sunny, but 19F. I think she’s trying to train me to be faster.

I tricked my husband
He was so impressed with the fact that I’d cleared a path on the driveway Monday.

It was very cold, barely making it up to the 20s. And cloudy. And windy. And had snowed just enough to cover everything with a dusting. We didn’t go for a dogwalk.

But it was trash day, and when I brought down the trashcan, it slid down the very end of the driveway, removing all the snow in its path. When I brought down the recycling, I deliberately dragged it so that it would clear a path.

My husband was convinced that I’d shoveled!

Grief isn’t linear
It comes in waves, and some days are better than others.

I felt pretty good Tuesday, for whatever reason, but Wednesday, for some reason, I just really was missing Chester big time.

I went food shopping in the morning, and stopped at Marshalls (where I may or may not have bought shoes, and not the athletic kind), because I could — because I didn’t have to rush home to let Chester out or take him to the vet.

Somehow being in the car seemed very hard. Maybe because of all the time we’d spent in it?

I had planned to take Lola to the park, and I almost changed my mind; it was a busy day filled with chores and obviously it takes less time to walk her in our neighborhood, but we haven’t been walking much due to the snow, ice, and cold, so I decided I would just do it.

Doggie Kisses
Doggie Kisses

Somehow I felt much more peaceful at the park. Even walking by the place we’d stopped out and sat and taken photos at a few months ago, on another weekend when we thought he wouldn’t be around much longer. There’s just something so soothing about the park. And of course Lola loved sniffing something new.

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Ornament tree

I found another tree decked out in ornaments, too! Not the ones above; that’s the one I saw on a run back in early December — I didn’t stop to take photos, but it did make me smile.

 

Pulled off any good jokes on a loved one recently?

I’m linking up with Amanda at Running with Spoons for her:

Thursdays are for thinking out loud

24 thoughts on “Lola is my new trainer/coach: TOLT”

  1. That’s a fabulous picture of you and Chester! I think you should enlarge it and frame it. I had to laugh about you shoveling the drive. Sounds like something I would totally take credit for! And bless Lola! I can just imagine her disdain from being carried, haha! She really does look less than impressed! 🙂

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    1. Oh yes, Lola & Chester were very different. So were Simba & Gizmo & they were brothers!

      The ornament tree was pretty cool but I needed to get home & didn’t have time for pictures- next time, if it’s still there.

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  7. Since Lloyd reads your blog, the cat is out of the bag. LOL

    My hubby likes to say that name brand items taste better than no-name brands. So this frugal shopper just buys the no-name brand and puts it in the box of the named brand. And no, he never notices.

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  9. So sorry to read about your Chester ❤ Its so hard to lose a dog. I cried the day we got out new pup who I love dearly as well. But it made me miss Riley too.

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  10. Unexpectedly in waves. So familiar.
    You already know from experience that it lasts a while. I hope, no, I know, that you take comfort in that the fact that it is precisely because you loved him so much, and he you, is why you feel the pain so sharply. We who love our pets know it is worth it. Bless you. And bless Lola for her quick steps! New trainer. That’s rich. 😉

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    1. Thanks, Connie. In some ways it isn’t as hard as the last time because I knew I’d done everything I could, but it’s always hard, of course. Lola is a great comfort & I’m so glad we have her. And Gizmo, who is presently purring away on my lap, is a great comfort too.

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  11. I love your picture with Chester 🙂
    That grief does come in waves, you will be doing something and it will hit you…and it hurts 😦 I am sorry.
    Tough cold up there, but good for Lola wanting to move it fast lol she is probably trying to stay warm.
    I had no idea it mattered in the carb content when it is al dente…
    I like it that way 🙂

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    2. Oh, Lola is definitely trying to stay warm but I actually have trouble keeping up sometimes — she’s always been fast (but doesn’t particularly like to run with me, unfortunately).

      We have many pictures of chest . . . we already have a great big one up! I like that picture, but it’s not terribly flattering to me.

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