That "Whooshing" Sound...

Justin: That "whooshing" sound I am constantly hearing these days turns out to be Time as it is flying by my head. It's been 7 months since the wedding already. Did you hear me? SEVEN MONTHS. It feels like just a few weeks. A year will have passed before I know it! Oh well, that's good as that means Autumn and FOOTBALL!

Last weekend Stace and I went to Nashville, TN. as she had a large team running the Country Music Marathon (http://www.cmmarathon.com/home.html). What a good time! We left here for Knoxville late Wednesday evening where we stayed with my parents and then headed out for the capitol the next morning. Mom and Dad watched Oscar and Porter while we were away so we wouldn't have to board them.
Now considering the small population of friends and folk who read this blog, more then likely you've met my mother. She's tiny.
Like 4'10" of tiny.
And in case you don't know, my 17 month old puppy, Porter, was last weighed in at 90lbs and I don't have to reach down to pet his back. In case I'm not painting a clear enough picture, I'm saying that when he stands on his back legs, my puppy is head and shoulders taller then my mother.
And we've never had a big dog growing up. The largest animal we had was a shitz-zhu.
Needless to say I was very concerned how my energetic puppy would act around my parents and vice versa.

If you were wondering why I have not mentioned Oscar, I'm not playing favorites, he's just Oscar. He loves it at the parents' as it's carpeted. They like watching movies; he likes sitting. It's a perfect match.

Back to Porter.

Porter is a very very sweet dog and loves to be cuddled and rubbed and brushed. He minds me very well and rarely do we have any problem. However he's still very young at 17 months, very energetic, has 90lbs to throw around and other then a few veterinary technicians and a groomer, he has not been handled by anyone else. My parents have not handled a big dog on a leash, have 2 cats and live in a suberb of Knoxville so there are always animals in the yard and usually cat pee somewhere in the house, despite my mother's frantic efforts to clean.
Stupid cats.
So Porter was very excited when we got there and I'm not really sure he ever became "comfortable" and "relaxed", but he definitely enjoyed the newness. I made sure he was at least comfortable around Mom and Dad and then let him explore the house. He's sweet enough that he won them over rather quickly and I don't think he frightened Mom all too much. Dad would take him on walks and Mom minded the pug.
The weekend went almost without incident until Dad and Porter were surprised by a couple neighborhood dogs coming out of some woods. Porter's excitement had him pulling on the leash and my father mistakenly grabbed the leash itself in an effort to control him. The leash cut through some hide on a couple of fingers, but it doesn't seem to be too bad. He has had a doctor look it over and was told it should grow back in a few weeks. All in all they seemed comfortable with the dogs when we picked them up on Sunday. Hopefully there wasn't any other incidents they are not telling us about.

As for us in Nashville, I helped out Stace with some things Thursday and Friday then I went to Brentwood and stayed with my pal from college, Josh. Stace's team did really well - everyone finished and there were no Team in Training injuries! Whoo hoo! We did a little sight seeing, ate at BB King's on 2nd Ave., and caught some really nice music. Stace and I agreed Nashville has a very Kansas City, MO vibe and we are considering it strongly for a future home location. It is closer to both of our families, and isn't Charlotte! Win-Win! Now we just need to put together an exit strategy for here... I will post some pictures of the weekend later.

This weekend we are off to White Lake, NC as she has a team doing the White Lake Half, which is a Half Ironman event. A 1.2 mile open water swim starts you off and leads into a 56 mile bike ride, culminating to a 13.1 mile run. Sweet eh? A friend and co-worker, Greg Carr, is participating. I hope to snap a few shots of him as he runs by.
http://www.setupevents.com/?fuseaction=event_detail&eventID=868

Oh, on a side note, I have started the new photo-work blog: http://justinkeelingimages.blogspot.com/

Be safe and well.
J.