2018 was a transitional year for us, getting settled in our new digs north of San Antonio, outfitting the homestead to suit our new lifestyles, meeting new people, and well on our way to becoming pillars of the community one friendly wave at a time.
Cooper found work at Bulverde Assisted Living as the resident therapy corgi, and has expanded his practice to include Heart of Texas Hospice facilities in the area. He has found the region hungry for his services. He even had business cards printed out. He is currently looking for new opportunities to fill out his schedule. Diane accompanies him in the role of driver, handler, and for Starbucks procurement afterward.
Meanwhile, Loki earned his Novice titles in Agility, and now competes in the “Open” division. He has two-a-day training sessions on Wednesdays, mornings with Diane and evenings with Jesse, at the local facility in Bulverde – K9 Country Club. We travel 50 miles down to Eurodog in South San Antonio about once a month for our two minutes of public humiliation. I should say thrill of competition, but well, two sides of the coin.
We discovered out neighbors Linda and JR are also big in the local Agility scene, and they’ve been really kind to introduce us to local venues and people and show us the ropes. You might think we discovered them by talking to our classmates at K9 Country Club but no, we were driving around the neighborhood, spotted an agility course in their front yard, and reached out to them. Lucky for us, instead of reporting us to the police as stalkers, we’ve become good friends. And of course we now have a full agility course in our front yard too, as you do.
Malloy finally joined us in the hill country this weekend, moving into the new Hill Country Riding Academy, run by our friend Stephanie we met on the Katy horse circuit. It’s a lovely facility where Malloy and Stephanie’s horse Checkers will be able to trash talk about their former duels in the ring as they share a pasture.
Jesse has found new purpose in life clearing land, getting rid of cedar trees a garbage can at a time, and moving native stone into formations for walls, pillars or driveways, alternatively and sequentially, making our little piece of the hill country a tiny bit less so each week. Jesse has also taken up residence at the neighborhood monthly poker game, learning the finer points of Texas Hold’em at $25 a lesson and building a local following for Diane’s chocolate chip cookies in the process.
We have been updating the guesthouse to suit Diane’s mom Judy’s preferences and I dare say we’ll soon need to be updating the main house to keep up. We have also been refining our hosting skills. We have become regulars at Tejas Rodeo, Steakhouse and Saloon in Bulverde which has a weekly rodeo, live music and dance on Saturdays. That’s good fun. We’ve taken some guests to Rebecca’s Creek Distillery when is real close to the house which frequently has live music and a food truck in the yard. We are patrons of the local performing arts at S.T.A.G.E. – which puts on four plays or musicals a year, about six miles from our house. It’s a classic, circa 1970. The curtains and chairs are shades of teal and orange that don’t exist anymore, and probably never existed in nature. Aveda is our local hair stylist school and salon which we like for the reasonable prices. We are there so frequently we could be in line for course credits. Jesse came in once and asked for a zero cut all around, and it set off a stir of new teaching opportunities about how to discreetly handle men’s ear hair. It was interesting to hear the things said aloud and debated that are usually secretly decided. Lastly, we ofter find our way to the JW Marriott nearby for pamper services, fancy holiday displays and the perfect opportunity to walk around a hill country mansion like you own the place. Anyway, if you want to visit, let us know. We’ll put you up in the guest house, get your ears lowered, get you drunk and cowboy cultured.
When we look back on the year, we also travelled quite a bit. Business took Jesse to all expense paid trips to San Francisco and Seattle. We visited friends and family in Katy, Houston, Austin, Fort Collins, Des Moines, and Delaware. It was our first trip to Iowa – which was amazing – and the bride Martha and groom Mickey even gave us our first ride in their Telsa, which was even amazinger! We spent beach weeks at Mazatlan, Mexico and at Bay Saint Louis, MI, golf-carting out for ice cream and drinks with our corgis each day. Diane even jetted off to Paris with Judy for a long weekend for something vaguely horse-related. So we spent more than our fair time passing through airport this year.
As the year draws to a close we are looking forward to once again spending quality time with family and visiting friends, sharing a few feasts, over-indulging in warming holiday drinks and snuggling with our corgi’s until they can’t stand it anymore and slink off beyond our grasp.
Jesse, Diane, Cooper, Loki and Malloy
Corgi Ranch, TX 