Every day is an Adventure

The Plague has finally passed and I mostly feel what passes for “normal” around here. It was the strangest illness I’ve ever had – the symptoms changed every two hours or so. Really. I would be coughing like crazy for two hours (usually in the middle of the night – fun!) and then have chills and hot flashes for a couple of hours, then sneezing, then extreme nausea, then body aches, then a pounding head (never at the same time) etc. Wash, rinse, repeat for an entire week. Fun times!

On Saturday I took Awana to The Big City to drop her off at the airport so she can fly back to Mississippi to visit her Mama. She is not a fan of driving in The Big City so I volunteered to take her up and show her some of my favorite places (I lived there for 10 years.)

I had planned to ambush my son and get a picture of him drinking tea, but he begged off, saying that he’d been out late the night before and had to do laundry, blah, blah, blah. Translation: Mom, I was out late last night and am still hung over and can not even think about making myself presentable for you and your friend and I don’t want the “your father is a drug addict and you can’t just go out drinking with your friends – there could be serious consequences for you” speech yet again. Please.

Whatever. A and I had some shopping to do! We had a blast stopping wherever we wanted to, the only time limit her midnight flight and my stamina. We found some bargains at a huge Big City Goodwill (we love us some Cheap Good Stuff!) and then we hit the place I drove three hours for – Uwajimaya, an Asian grocery/book store. I love that place!

They have the best teriyaki chicken and rice and that’s what I had for lunch. Awana lived in Japan for a couple of years and was flitting about exclaiming at various foods in packages – “I love this bean cake! I remember this from Japan – it’s fab, you have to try it! Here’s my favorite drink!” etc. I admit that I can’t read a thing on the packaging if it doesn’t have the English translation and was going to shamelessly use her superior knowledge of Asian food to my best advantage. Ahem.

Being much more adventurous with food, A chose several things that I wouldn’t have picked in a million years and invited me to try them all. I ate raw fish for the first time ever and didn’t die. We looked at all the kitchen gadgets and books and magazines and five million types of tea and rice and noodles and sake and had a grand time. I came home with a cool bag, three types of sake and enough food to vary my diet for a couple of months. A promised to show me some cooking tricks to ensure I get some healthy calories into me. If I forgot any ingredients I’ll pick them up when I go back to get her in a couple of weeks. For now it’s enough to look into the cupboard and see all that exotic food 🙂

Poor Sabu felt it was her duty to stay awake every minute of the trip and by the time we were heading home she was drooping with exhaustion. The wind howled, the rain pelted down and as we crossed the Coast Range, the daylight faded out. The last 40 miles were a white-knuckle ordeal, me crouched behind the wheel of my little car, trying to stay between the lines while a pick-up truck tailgated me, its headlights the only thing I could see. There was no place to pull over to let it pass and even slowing down to a snail’s pace could not induce it to blast by me. I only hope that it was some other freaked-out person and not an asshole.

We survived the journey and crashed hard. Sunday was a work day and I am happy the shop was slow as I was not rested enough to be as cheerful as I know I can be.

Today was a day of errands and naps.

There were SIX dogs at the dog park – the most important Event in Sabu’s day. She ran, she chased, she maneuvered the agility equipment like an old pro for treats. I think the little bitch is holding out on me – from what I’ve seen, dogs have at least a little trepidation at walking across a 9″ bouncing board, or climbing 5 feet into the air on the triangle thing, but Sabu just hopped up, crossed the obstacle and then sat on the other side, waiting for a treat. Has this dog had some agility training? She knew to hop up onto the platform, face me and sit without being told. Has she just been watching other dogs, or has someone put in some time teaching her these things? What else does she know? She knows perfectly well how to retrieve a ball but she refuses to bring it back (even if rewarded with a treat) 99% of the time – the other 1% she brings the ball back, drops it at my feet, sits and looks at me like I’m an asshole for asking her to perform manual labor.

She knows sit, down, heel, shake, load up (get in the car,) stay, etc. all the stuff you expect a 5-year-old dog to do, and she will perform all of her “tricks” when commanded from 5 feet away, even farther on a good day. If nothing else is going on, she chooses to do these Dog Things, but if she Doesn’t Want To, well, forget it – it’s all slinging a 50 pound dog bodily into the car, dragging her up the stairs, etc.

The problem is that she’s too smart. Take this very moment, for instance. She is pretending to be Road Kill, stretched out on the floor, seemingly sleeping. But. I can see her eyeballs circling the room and her ears moving back and forth – at the slightest hint of a disturbance, she will be on her feet, growling or barking (depending on the level of alarm she wants to convey) and on full alert. She will also bounce up like a ping pong ball if I approach the fridge. Dog has her priorities.

Where was I? Been doing some deep thinking about that dog today.

So. Went to visit my stuff in storage after the dog park. Know what? There’s not much left there. That means that I have 85% of my possessions here in Towanda. This is nothing short of a miracle! I am a packrat – I hate to let any Good Stuff go, and for the past 10 years the Good Stuff has been supplies for projects that I want to do someday but can’t right now for whatever reason M has imposed. No more! I am finding it easy to let the things go that are not serving me right now and I can feel my creativity coming to life again as I get things organized and arranged Just So. It feels fantastic!

Next stop was the pharmacy to get Sabu’s Feel Good Pills. The vet wants to try another drug as the Doxepin was great but she was showing some new aggression towards other dogs. Not good. Jekyll and Hyde some days. So we’re “adjusting her meds.” Can’t believe I just wrote that.

Moving on. I got my hair cut again today. Just can’t seem to get it short enough. Pictures to follow as I then ate some toast and ice cream and took a nice, long nap and it’s all lopsided. Yawn. I do feel rested.

Leftover teriyaki chicken for dinner and to bed early. Work tomorrow followed by two days off. I’ve been busy with modifications to Towanda and need to get some posts up about that and about the asshat who was using a string trimmer around Towanda and cut the shit out of my sewer hose holder upper thingy.

It’s always something, but Life is still Good!