A Quarantine Diary
To look for a dog friendly workplace has been a dream of mine for quite some time, I stopped thinking about it as TT grew older and requires less attention, he became way less active than he was a puppy. 2020 has been a weird year for everyone including us, but it somehow granted me an opportunity to stay closer to TT when I work and cook. I even got back into making a dog cake for his 7th birthday on May 13th.
This cheesecake is not the most impressive cake I made for pups, it might actually be the worst one ever, that I can explain why… I went back to see our old photos one night and found out a Tissue’s birthday event happened in 2017 that I never posted on this blog. Considering it’s going to be awkward to throw a new blog post about something happened 3 years ago, also it’s impossible to pretend I remember anything about that particular day at all, so here we go:
Feb.25.2017
Feb.25.2017
Now, this is pretty self explanatory why that 7th birthday cake is the worst cake I ever created.
- Check All My Other Cake Making Posts:
Temescal Gateway Park
- Fee : $12, but we recommend to park outside.
After most of the trails reopened in the LA area, we started to hike weekly, most of the time we don’t take pictures anymore because either trails have been flooded by people or we were just revisiting old places.
On May 30 we went to Temescal Gateway Park again and were greeted by wonderful nasturtium blooms, but also encountered an unfriendly couple lecturing us “You can’t bring your dog here!” while there’s clearly a sigh shows this is a dog friendly trail and TT was completely out of their way not bothering anyone.
One new thing we got for the house was a sun catcher, we put up on both east and west facing windows, these little crystals threw rainbows everywhere in the house in the morning and late afternoon. TT couldn’t care less but his cat sister Shia Shai went crazy for a few days.
Franklin Canyon – Hastain trail
- Route : Loop
- Length : 2.3 mi
- Elevation : 580 ft
Jun 28 we came to the Hastain trail at Franklin Canyon, the beginning part was easy and had a little bit of shade here and there. However the last part goes steep down, I had to rush TT to walk non stopping because I saw lots of busy fire ants, or at least that’s what I thought they were.
East Fork – The Bridge to Nowhere
On July 12th we came to the east fork – the bridge to nowhere trail once again, our last visit with others was in 2014. I can’t remember why I just stopped coming back, it was such a fun place to fool around.
It’s quite a tragedy on the day we arrived, I’ve never seen so many people here, forget about the parking lot, cars were parked all the way along the road for at least a mile around 10 am in the morning. Because of this quarantine situation in LA, people have nowhere else to go, most of them try to stay sane by coming into nature to hang out with friends and family. I can’t blame them, but I also can’t deny it made me sad to lose options to go to any of our zen zones, getting away from the city and noise became impossible.
To practice social distancing, we pretty much tried to stick with our go-to park for weeks. Keeping a distance from others and having guaranteed parking was never too hard here even during pandemic.
Red Rock Canyon to Calabasas Peak
- Route : Out and back
- Length : 4.2 mi
- Elevation : 1,059 ft
On Aug 2th, Quentin was very kind that he picked Red Rock Canyon to Calabasas Peak trail as a new spot for us to explore, I was thrilled not having to take any responsibility to do research.
Yet I believe I gave him a hard time by complaining about the unexpected elevation too much until his ears started to bleed. I knew the reality was probably me getting weak by sitting all day long for months, no more climbing gym for months, maybe I was just angry at myself.
Jennifer is moving again, this time even farther away from us. Before this big move she took all her pups back down to LA for a weekend on Aug 15, I pretty much treated this as the last time to see them for a long while. Future is so unpredictable, sometimes there is no more “next time”, you never know.
I was shocked to see age washed away more colors on their little faces, I told Quentin somehow meeting them just like visiting parents, every time you see them you get surprised how much older they look than what you remembered.
TT no longer plays with Tinkerbell restlessly like the way they were, and I pretended not to notice that.
Cobb Estate Trail
Our original plan was to hike the Dawn Mine trail, sadly after 45 minutes of drive we came to notice the entrance was blocked by rangers due to the fire hazard and the crowd in that area. They guided us to a nearby Cobb Estate trail instead.
The sun was beating down on us with no mercy, we insisted to hike just because of this silly reunion has to happen.
The ground was obviously too hot for their bear paws to handle, so we slowly came to realize we could just go back to our old place, the park next to Jennifer’s old house.
We probably didn’t even walk 0.5 mile there at Cobb Estate, it is quite beautiful, I told myself, we could come again when the weather cools down, or can we?
I have a special soft spot for the Ti-family since TT grew up with them, they are his siblings, besides me they are his family.
Hope you all will love your new home, make more new friends in the new town.
Goodbye now Tiru, Tissue, Tinkerbell.
And goodbye Tiffy.
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