The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

The weather is an interesting beast here in London. It was sunny earlier today, but just a few minutes ago (at about 5:15pm) we got some good thunder, lightning, wind, rain, and ice (I’d say hail, but these were good ice chunks). Within a minute, gutters were washing over and car alarms were going off. It looked like it was calming down, but it got worse: stronger rain, wind, and quite a bit more hail – enough so that if you were outside, you would be in pain. The gutters in the streets were like little rivers, chunks of ice and something have come through our chimney into the (the living room), and our garden (the back "yard") is filled with ice, except where there is now standing water attempting to drain. This all took about 10 minutes and now it is starting to get a little sunny again.

Milo is such a bouncy dog that he needed to be drugged just to pull the stitches out. We didn’t want to risk having him jump just as the knife was next to him while cutting the stitches, which is what he just about did at first. So, he is now completely out of it while relaxing on the couch with Lorie. I’ve added a couple of new photos in the Milo In London photo album. (scroll to the end to see the new ones)

For those of you who have visited, you know I walk Milo by the Thames River and am often amazed by the fluctuations in the tide. It moves about 16 feet (4.7 meters) each day, and that’s just over the next few days. Check out the tidal flow near the Hammersmith bridge from http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast/tides/tides.shtml?date=20070628&loc=0115:

Two houses in Fulham have been torn town and are being replaced, with new houses complete with basements. These houses are what us Americans would call "row houses", but are quite normal in London. I promised my brother photos of the dividing basement wall being built, which are concrete blocks with packed-foam insulation, so here they are:  

No, the entire building is not just for me. However, it is a nice building even if it is a little bit like a library inside: very quite and bland. However, my desk at least has some beads from Bourbon Street adventures in New Orleans to help give it some color. 

Click on the picture to get a good view of the entire area.

It’s tough being an only dog with no kids to compete with. Really! Who else has to suffer being held on his back just so he can sleep, or having bowls of water and food held up to his cone so he can eat? Thank God for Amazon who supplies us with movies (like Netflix in the US), which allows us to watch bad Jane Austin movies (via Lorie’s selections) and Rambo (via my selections on free TV), and the Internet which supplies a never-ending amount of work.   

  Thankfully for Milo, there is a big music festival being broadcast on quite a few TV channels. The gig is at Glastonbury, which is also the name of it. So far, I like the Arctic Monkeys and Amy Winehouse: I’m not sure what Milo likes. 

Two rotweilers attacked Milo today at the place he normally plays at and he has even played with them before. We aren’t sure who started it or what really happened, but the end result is that Milo ended up with a very large chest wound. He now has 7 stitches, a drain, and a cone. As long as he doesn’t get infected, he should be OK; and he is on antibiotics and pain killers for a few days. It is now almost 1am and we have a bed made up for him, but he is in pain when he tries to lay down, so he just sits or stands and almost falls asleep. It will be a long night or more for all of us until the pain goes away.

Let’s hope they build it! See: UK’s Lightning to build all-electric GT sports car – Engadget

We took Milo to Wimbledon via the District Line on Sunday where we met up with Megan, Alan, and of course Daisy. Milo and Daisy like to play and run until they collapse, which is great for us. The photo of us sitting in the grass is a typical sunny weekend activity: go to a pub that is next to a park and bring food and drink from the pub to the park. Here we are at the Crooked Billet in Wimbledon where they give you a balloon with a weight on it so when they bring your food, they can find you in the park.  

While we do have quite a bit of fun with friends and Milo at pubs, comedy, pubs, theatre, pubs, dog parks, pubs, and tourist attractions, there are quite a few things that really stand out. So, to all you friends and family in the US keep track, and to help my own memory (the Swiss cheese of brains, with no offense to the Swiss intended), I have created Brian’s Favorite Blog Entries. This of course could also be… Brian’s view of fun things in life.

Of course, most adventures that I don’t document include Milo, since my hands are full when walking/running/chasing him, which keeps me from taking many photos. How could such an innocent dog be a handful?