At Palmdale We Play

The Sparky saga continues. Since we acquired him 2 days before Christmas he has been an ongoing conversation here at Palmdale. I will attempt to post a chronological set of pictures of all the mischief that has involved Sparky since he came to us.

Our new dog!

Sorry about that Santa.

Party Animal.

Poor Sparky can't reach his dish.

Oh no!

Oh No! Not the pink flamingo!

So much for that shoe.

Sparky raised $2.17 and gave it to the resident's association.

Dog gone missing.

Kind neighbors.

His most recent and most talked about adventure took place last week. On Friday, Sparky disappeared from our patio. On Saturday, we put the following poster around Palmdale and Sparky. This caused much consternation and worry among many residents and much speculation about what possibly could have happened. Don insisted that we communicate our confusion as to what could have happened to him but I had a hard time with that when some residents were really worried that there was a dog thief amongst us. Don said all then needed to do was read the poster and they would know that it was just another one of Sparky’s escapades. We received a very nice gift bag with a stuffed dog with a dog toy and a note that said, “Come home Sparky”. Another person suggested that Sparky had run off with a Chihuahua and was going to make us grandparents or he took off down Hwy. 100 to South Padre Island for Spring Break and was sitting on the beach drinking tequila or more likely both of those things. A typed note in our mailbox blamed that “fat man in lot 154” had run over him with a golf cart and was covering it up. We checked it out. No one lives at 154 so that was all a hoax. It was getting out of hand. It seemed I couldn’t go anywhere without someone asking or talking about Sparky. Even after 5 days people were still asking me if someone really stole my dog believing that he was a flesh and blood dog including service people who came into the park to fix something. And then we got really busy and didn’t have time to set up for Sparky to come home. On Thursday after line dancing, we had the Shuffleboard Tournament which lasted from 10:30 AM until about 3:30 in the afternoon. It was hot out and I wanted to spend a little time by the pool. Then yesterday, we got up at 5:30 to go on a deep sea fishing excursion. Well that didn’t work out but we did drive about an hour away and then hung out until 8 AM till we heard definitively that it was canceled. By then I had my one-day fishing license. So after we came home I suggested to Don that he and I go surf fishing so we did that and came home with enough fish for the 2 of us to have a nice fish dinner.  So it wasn’t until this morning that we were able to get Sparky back and explain his absence. Palmdale residents have been really great in regards to Sparky and have frequently mentioned that they wished they had taken earlier pictures. They are sharing the story with friends back home. So I’m trying to put it all here. Someone I talked to said that people might think that the people are all a little crazy when it comes to Sparky. I said that I think it is just for fun. I said when I talk to my friends up north I just say, “At Palmdale we play.” That is what we do here.

Time is beginning to run out here and our next step is to make a list of things we need to do with this camper to get ready for our summer adventures to the north. After we leave here we will begin to head in a westerly direction and go north through Utah and Idaho ending up in the Billings, Montana area the last week of June where we will meet up with some of the younger generation for a mountain backpacking adventure to Mystic Lake.

In the meantime we will continue to enjoy the Palmdale routine. In the end, we will need to find a new home for Sparky here at Palmdale since we don’t need to continue doing this.