A dear friend of mine on a bike ride Thursday evening found 3 littermates that had been dumped along the Rio Grande, so suddenly her house of 2 adult dogs became a house of 5 doggos. She has a background of previously volunteering for an animal rescue group, so she had these pups checked out at the vet and given their first round of shots by Friday morning. With a clean bill of health, by Friday evening I was meeting them. By Saturday morning one of them followed me home.

Meet Toby. His full name is Toby Twinkle Toes, as Mr. Twinkle Toes is what my his savior called him when the vet's office asked for a name. He was, by far, the calmest of the three. A little shy at first, but mostly content to just watch the world around him. The vet pegs him at about 10 weeks old, and from the spotted sister they look to be cattle dog mixes of some sort. Whatever he is, he's a very good boy!

We were both a little nervous for the ride home in the Ridgeline. I've had a dog/dogs most of my life, but puppies aren't something I have much experience with. There was also the giant question mark of how the head of household security would take to this change she certainly didn't vote for.

Ellie has been amazing with Toby, against all my expectations otherwise. She's taken to mothering him and is certainly assisting me in providing adult supervision. Toby is enamoured with her. I already have a lot of doggies in symmetry going on in the house again.

Toby is such a calm puppy. His primary interests in life seems to be cuddling, sleeping and following me or Ellie around the house. I took the opportunity of him snoozing next to me on the couch to imprint him on some F1 qualifying for his first TV show. Later that night, his first movie was Pulp Fiction.

He spent the first night in a container next to my bed, and Ellie helped wake me up a couple of times that first night when Toby woke up and was ready to go out for doggie business. It was quite remarkable, as she hasn't slept in my room or touched that dog bed in years. She prefers her own bedroom and full-size people bed that used to be the guest bedroom.

This wasn't a planned addition to the family, but he's been pretty amazing so far. After only one accident the first day, he seems to be getting the hang of doing the doggie business in the backyard. We're getting in the habit of going outside every 2-3 hours, and he's seems to be getting the idea down. He's picking up on his name, and Toby is learning the "come" command. A few days in, he is becoming so much more curious about his new world. He also figured out how to get out the crate in the first five minutes in it, so reinforcements in the form of some zip ties were added. Last night he slept in his crate and only needed a 0030 and 0430 backyard visit. Progress!

Both of us have enjoyed learning that wet grass functions as an automatic puppy wash. Toby gets to play, Ellie gets to supervise and I get to drink coffee on the back porch in the morning while he gets a quick Svending. I just dry him off when go back in the house.

Today he came to work with me. Falls asleep on the job, but his people skills are good. The plan right now is for him to be my assistant some days and go explore the Southern NM desert he lives in while I keep the flood warning hardware going. So far at home, he is completely unconcerned about vacuum cleaners, electric string trimmers and lawn mowers.

He's had his first trip to the store, where he got to meet a few people, see all the things and got to watch his name tag being engraved. He's too young to really do or have ground contact with parks/dog parks/places where lots of people bring dogs, but the focus will be on getting him as many places as possible to meet people, see things and controlled interactions with some other doggos that I know are fully vaccinated.

Toby is such a good boy. I guess I know what my project is for the rest of the year...

I'm enjoying getting to know the new daily driver, bike hauler and adventure mobile. It's got a few party tricks that should come in handy.

When you pull the center tailgate handle it drops down exactly as expected.

There's a second handle under the tailgate on the right side that opens the tailgate to the side.

Which reveals the locking, water-tight trunk. There's a drain plug in the bottom for clean up, too.

The trunk is surprisingly large. A person could fit in there (not happily, but still...) Spare tire and tools storage are on the tray under the bed and slide out for access.

There's even an inside trunk release, in case the person in the trunk is supposed to still be breathing.

Inside, the rear seats can be had in normal mode for doing seat things.

Or they can folded up out of the way for room for all sorts of fun in the back. That center, plastic floor rail sure looks like a bike tire would fit in it. With the front wheel removed, I suspect there's enough room back there for locked, interior bike storage for the post-ride, but haven't gone home yet, ride beers at the nearest brewery.

In general, I'm liking this truck and am enjoying getting to know it. The Ridgeline drives very, very nicely.

https://carsandbids.com/auctions/3oYk6Djv/1994-mitsubishi-pajero-2800-td

The Pajero is now live on Cars and Bids. I've committed an act of pure capitalism and sent it in a no reserve auction. I'm hopeful it is a neat enough truck to not regret that decision. I'm slightly encouraged by the fact the two people are bidding on it 20 minutes after it went live.

Out in the rough neighborhood of Spaceport America one finds a couple of things seen less often out in the desert: one of my weather stations for the flood warning system, and a postage stamp parcel of wildlife conservation.

Funded long ago by the state game and fish folks, there's a fenced in area (to keep cattle out) a few hundred yards by a few hundred yards containing a wildlife drinker.

The angled metal structure collects rainfall and condensation, drains it into the gutter and gravity takes over to the large partially buried plastic tank.

It seems to work remarkably well, as I've never seen the tank without water. The local BLM office biologist researches the diversity of wildlife found around it. I've seen elk and or oryx in this immediate area with some regularity, although yesterday's visit just showed signs of a recent badger.

But wait, there's more!

Enhance!

Opening the NEMA box on the weather station revealed at bat hanging out in the hinge part of the box. He was gently encouraged away with a stick, so no rabies shot was needed this afternoon.

This is one of the more remote sites in my system, and one I love going to. I enjoying going to middle of nowhere by myself, and this site actually requires an ATV or SxS to get to. It's actually possible to get a truck within like 500 yards of the site, but the better and quicker course of action is to leave the truck on the BNSF right away about 10 miles south and SxS the rest of the way in. That abandoned section line road in makes for generally single-digit mph travel in a truck and has some clay spots that are a no-go in a truck if it has rained recently. The SxS makes much faster travel in, and is significantly more fun.

I deeply enjoy that my office is basically Southern NM.

Have a minty OBS powerstoke spotted on the puppy walk this evening for your time.

To go with the dirt work I did last week at a couple of flood control ponds and drainage channel, yesterday was the follow up mowing. I've actually liked the basic activity of mowing since I was a little kid, as it probably scratches some hereditary itch from my Midwestern farmer ancestors. To quote a Clarkson, I did a thing.

Put the brushcutter attachment on the machine and it becomes a ~13,000 pound riding lawnmower. With air conditioning. This takes mowing to 11, for the times when you also want to mow small trees and large bushes to go with the grass and weeds. It makes your neighbors riding lawnmower seem quaint.

It is tremendously fun. I can't believe they paid me to operate this thing. There was only one moment where some poo might have come out via an encounter with a well-hidden rock bigger than a person could move No damage was done via an immediate stop and lift of the mower deck, but I wouldn't want to make that a habit. By far, the most fun I've ever had mowing.

The Ridgeline came from the body shop this afternoon. Finally tally for the college kid (or rather his insurance policy) who ran a red light into it: $9,748.21 (plus whatever five weeks on rental car costs the insurance company). Mostly OEM parts on the repair.

I've missed it.

As an added bonus in going through the OE scan and sensor calibration process, it seems to have gotten a software update along the way. I noticed a few things were slightly different in the infotainment menus on the way back.

We're calling Toby 11 weeks old now! It's been a week since this ball of puppy fluff followed me home, and what a big week it's been. He's noticably grown, and is learning new things every day.

We know our name, come, sit, go pee, let's go to the back, go in, go to bed, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We're learning the word toy, too. He's rocking the house training, and loves sleeping in his crate. He's spent half days at work with me this week. He plays and chews constantly when awake, and then sleeps after puppying hard. It's safe to say he fits in around here.

He has taken to camouflaging on a Ford Expedition floor mat in my office. And I didn't think there would ever be use for the original carpet floor mats from the new Expedition at work.

Saturday evening some friends and I parked near the border in El Paso and rode our bikes over for Critical Mass in Juarez. It had been years since I was last in Mexico despite living just up the road, and the first time in Juarez on a bicycle. I was reminded of just how neat a city Juarez is and learned how much fun riding there is.

I love the Juarez has a proper, almost European feel to the city. No highways through the city, and buildings close together and often more than one story high. None of this American BS of everything having a big yards/ landscaping and parking lots for days. Many businesses have only a handful of parking spots, and lots of neighborhoods looked eminently walkable or rideable with dense building, assortments of neighborhood shops and restaurants and a pedestrians out and about in numbers. Central Juarez reminds me of San Francisco in urban character, sans the hills or ocean.

We even had coloured smoke along the ride, just for fun. Like the Southwestern Borderland in general, even to this wedo folks are so damned friendly and fun.

I loved that Juarez is such a good place to ride. They've started removing traffic lanes and putting physical barriers to form protected bike lines along some of the major roads. Even where there weren't bike lanes or other infrastructure and after we broke off from the group ride, it was still such a good environment to ride in. Despite friends telling me this in advance, I was little skeptical.

For those have driven in Northern Mexico, Americans tend find it a pretty different place to drive. The rules of the road tend to be a bit more flexible and the decision making a lot more creative, and of course Juarez has the traffic expected of an urban city of 1.5 million folks. The reality is that few roads in Juarez have a speed limit over 40 kph, so the speed differential between bikes and cars often isn't all that much through the city. The other thing working in favor is not only are things moving slower on the streets, drivers are SO much less aggressive than Americans behind the wheel. It turns out everyone expects some level of chaos, and its no big deal. Cyclists fit into that nicely, and everyone is friendly about the whole thing. In the end, it felt way safer than anywhere I've ridden in the US.

It turns out the thing Mexicans kept telling us to eat in Juarez was hot dogs, and they're not wrong. There's a particular place that's a local late night legend, and the best hot dog I've ever had. Big, juicy hot dog, wrapped in bacon, smothered in cheese, beans, onions, relish and green chile. Add in nachos and a drink for the best 150 pesos/$7.50 I've spent in a long time.

The historic, genealogical, cultural and economic reality of the borderland is that Ciudad Juarez, El Paso, TX and Las Cruces, NM are really just different neighborhoods of the same big city. As a history major, I'd be remiss to point out this is a place where borders crossed people much more so than people crossed borders. It was great to visit the regional motherland, and I can't wait to ride over again soon. Finally put my passport card to use, too. No reason to carry the whole passport book over there.

Toby discovered he can now get up on couches by himself at will.

One doggo is much happier about this development than the other.

The Monday afternoon shit posting may now resume.

Normally Toby gets interested in the TV when there's animal sounds. Apparently the exhaust note from the Aston Vulcan from season 1 of the Grand Tour also catches his ear. He is enamoured with it.

Toby is now 7 months old and 45lbs of puppy sidekick. He goes all the places and does all the things now. Meeting new people is pretty much his favorite thing in the world, even bikepackers out in the middle of nowhere. Last week he even got invited inside a restaurant for a meal for the first time.

He continues to be about 98 percent good boy. He's in a really fun phase now where we really get to do a lot of stuff.

@ike808 said in good morning oppo!:

Does anyone even listen to radio anymore? GET OFF MY LAWN!

My work truck just barely predates having Bluetooth or USB inputs, so the radio lives on the local NPR station. I enjoy the juxtaposition of a work truck doing the things out in the middle of nowhere with whatever classical music Performance Today is playing. It's also a nice changeup from the normal blues/folk/americana stuff I otherwise listen to the rest of the time.

@GrindIntoSecond I tend to think along those lines. Even on transverse V6s that require a plenum removal, the reality on many, if not almost all, modern cars is that sparkplugs and coils are likely to be changed not more than once or maybe twice in the life of the vehicle, and probably never by the person who bought it new.

@e90m3 Congrats. That's a very good colour, and very neat to get picks of it at the factory it just came from.

@LimitedTimeOnly I admire the work y'all do with with rescues and fosters. I couldn't do it, because I'd fall in love with them all and end up the middle-aged male version of the proverbial cat lady. But with dogs.

@Gabriella Happy birthday!

@jminer I admire it every time the puppy and I walk by.

Have a minty old Ford that lives in the neighborhood. Even with the oil leaks, I don't see many 1st gen powerstrokes still around in this kind of shape. I should strike up a conversation with this person sometime.

@Bloody-the-resident-LandRover-apologist Congrats! That is a Jag in the most glorious colour combination.

@DSM_OR_DIE Neat. As of three years ago when I still worked for the university, there was a professor that daily drove a civic of this era. In bright red, too.

@ForSweden