This year in 2018 when Lindsey and her mom went to Sante Fe I prepared for their trip for weeks. Not that I was involved with the trip in any way, I planned what I would do in that time. Some things I knew I wanted to do- hang some pictures, play the DLC of Mario Rabbids. But something that came up last minute that really came to not only define that week but the era of life post-Xena but pre-kid was driving around with Luna to find shade.
The one major downgrade with our new house was the walk from our doorstep. Because it was a new neighborhood there weren't any mature trees to provide shade, plus the constant construction made dog wrangling not always an easy task.
Luna for her part never liked the sun. Xena would play a game when walking as a puppy at UTPB where she would run from one shade to another. Luna meanwhile would just plop down in the shade and refuse to move back into the sun. The sunlight was her nemesis, and by 2018 I knew I needed a way to avoid it.
So this week Luna and I drove around trying to find some piece of shaded sidewalk we could use. We went to office parks, other communities, public spaces like a park closer to our old house I wish I went to before we moved, and even a few park trails at the big Williamson County Park. Along the way I found a lot of cool places to walk when shade wasn't needed, but I couldn't find the shade I desired.
Eventually I found a piece of exactly what I wanted nearby community on the exact other side of 183A from ours. This community had a little community park and this park had a small loop that in the early evening was completely shaded. This became what I dubbed the "shade park" and I excepted it as the final solution to the problem even if it was inferior to our old neighborhood or even the trail we would use in West Odessa.
But the search for the parks with Luna ended up being its own great memory. After Xena died I kept remembering one time her and I went to the lake to see my parents together just us, and the search for shade all week with Luna was like an extended version of that with her. I know one day I would give almost anything for one more walk with that sweet big dog, and so I cherish the fact that prior to a having a kid I could have one last week where the priority was 100% something as simple as finding a place to walk.
The one major downgrade with our new house was the walk from our doorstep. Because it was a new neighborhood there weren't any mature trees to provide shade, plus the constant construction made dog wrangling not always an easy task.
Luna for her part never liked the sun. Xena would play a game when walking as a puppy at UTPB where she would run from one shade to another. Luna meanwhile would just plop down in the shade and refuse to move back into the sun. The sunlight was her nemesis, and by 2018 I knew I needed a way to avoid it.
So this week Luna and I drove around trying to find some piece of shaded sidewalk we could use. We went to office parks, other communities, public spaces like a park closer to our old house I wish I went to before we moved, and even a few park trails at the big Williamson County Park. Along the way I found a lot of cool places to walk when shade wasn't needed, but I couldn't find the shade I desired.
Eventually I found a piece of exactly what I wanted nearby community on the exact other side of 183A from ours. This community had a little community park and this park had a small loop that in the early evening was completely shaded. This became what I dubbed the "shade park" and I excepted it as the final solution to the problem even if it was inferior to our old neighborhood or even the trail we would use in West Odessa.
But the search for the parks with Luna ended up being its own great memory. After Xena died I kept remembering one time her and I went to the lake to see my parents together just us, and the search for shade all week with Luna was like an extended version of that with her. I know one day I would give almost anything for one more walk with that sweet big dog, and so I cherish the fact that prior to a having a kid I could have one last week where the priority was 100% something as simple as finding a place to walk.
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