Traveling with Winter

Having Winter with me brought a new appreciation for the winter season. Obviously, Siberian Huskies love the cold weather and even though I do not, I could tell she was happy with the cold weather, often staying outside all night. Plus, she was easier to handle because I didn’t need to worry about leaving her in the car during dinner or a bridge game or a shopping trip and she would be fine. She certainly likes that better than being left home alone or in the crate at a hotel.

Winter is still coming with me on some bridge trips but simply coming along on day trips or while I run errands around town won’t be happening so much because of the heat. I have 1 week trips to regionals in Richmond regional at the end of May and 1 week at the Greenville SC regional in the middle June, and I plan to take Winter on both of those trips. I’m sure I will have other trips this summer but I haven’t planned those – I’m waiting to see what the actual days of the impending furlough will be and whether we will have any flexibility on when to take them.

As I think I have mentioned before, there are so many places I’d like to visit but most of them probably won’t happen this year. Things I haven’t mentioned are bridge festivals. Several European cities have tournaments with substantial cash prizes. I wish the ACBL or some other bridge organization would run more cash prize tournaments in the US. These tournaments have late starting times or sometimes only 1 session per day at about 4pm.  The one I’m looking at most is the one in Biarritz the first week of July.  Who wants to help pay my way to that?

The warm weather has reignited my desire to run and play tennis. Actually, the last time Winter escaped, about 4 weeks ago, I discovered a nice trail through the woods in my neighborhood. It’s down in a valley and shaded so should be good for a late afternoon 1.2 mile jog a few times per week. It certainly beats running on the street.