Falon’s World

After unloading the U-Haul for the second time…

We all load back into the truck and begin the journey home.

We are already exhausted, eager to get home and just want this horrible trip over with so we don’t even stop and sight-see. It starts to pour again…with all of our stuff in the bed. Who cares? At this point we just desperately want to get home. Eric starts to fall asleep so I take the wheel for 3 hours or so (North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia), until I’m so cramped and in pain from being in the same position throughout the whole trip that we are forced to stop and stretch – the dogs needed some time to move around as well.

We finally make it to Ohio (thank goodness!!!!!)…and hit a deer. A buck. It bangs up the front of the truck a little but nothing major and everything still works. Since it was the parent of the person we were moving we were forced to get and incident report from the local police. Who were all so busy that they asked us if we could possibly not get one, but when Eric insisted, had us come to them to receive it. After another 45 minutes of waiting and photo-taking (by the police of the truck) we finally got back on the road. Could anything else go wrong?

Yes. Mason has diarrhea in the back seat. Luckily it’s mostly on the dog blanket but…ugh. So we stop at a Meijer gas station and clean it out as best we could and I force some Pepto-Bismol tabs down Mason’s throat (during the process of which he manages (in his mad thrashing) to slice open my thumb. The dog will eat poop but not the meds – go figure) and get back on the road yet again. We don’t get very far before we’re both drooping and absolutely MUST stop. We sleep for a couple of hours, potty the dogs and get back on the road. Only to stop a couple of hours later, again for more sleep. This trip pretty much sapped both of us totally. We’re hardly talking at this time and both just want to get home and shower and fall into a bed where our knee caps aren’t bent continuously and our butts aren’t completely numb.

We eventually do make it home (I don’t know about you, but I had some doubts there for awhile) and start to unload – only to find out that we must get a move on cleaning the truck out because it has to be picked up immediately. Things are even taken so far as to accuse us of not getting home at 3 am like we planned (how DARE we sleep!!) and to blame that on the dogs (not on the stupidity of the entire trip as a whole), we are shown no sympathy or understanding after this insane favor we carried out and forced to begin the unpacking process at this moment. I am more angry than I’ve been in awhile and allowed myself a quick shower before we vacuumed every inch of that cab, washed the windows, scrubbed the carpet and in the end, left it cleaner than when we received it.

At this point in the vacation, every single thing I was looking forward to didn’t happen and we are both so exhausted that we don’t want to do anything else but sleep. Unfortunately, we get yet more…news. Since we didn’t use the van, we are told that some random guy we don’t know is going to remove the hitch so that it can be sold on EBay and the money made back that was spent. I am incensed. Here we drive to NC, hauling a crap-ton of crap, it takes SIX HOURS longer than planned, deleted all vacation-y enjoyment from the trip, were treated like we were not trusted to use money only for gas only to get there and find that no one will tell us which house to drop the stupid trailer at, are told that our crappy trip to the coast for the sunrise must be funded out of our own pocket, unload the crap-ton of crap at various places (after Eric had loaded it to begin with), sleep crammed inside the cab of the stupid truck, get chewed out for sleeping and are now told that we must accommodate yet another time for the van to be “worked on” …not by the company that put the hitch on, but by some other guy, because “$300 can’t be wasted on Eric right now”, so it must be sold on EBay.

Meanwhile, very little appreciation is shown, in fact the only thing I heard was more complaining and whining. We were treated as a moving company (and storage if it comes down to it) and we had to request that gas be paid both directions. We were not offered accommodations, let alone expenses for food or anything remotely enjoyable. Nope. It was all about getting the crap-ton of crap there and then screw what happened to us. The result of this trip? I’m still so disgusted and angry I can’t even talk about it without wanting to hit something. Never again. Oh and did I mention that this friend that Eric did all of this for did not even come to thank him in person or even come to say good-bye. Yup. That’s how this all ended. One can only hope that this “vacation” gets better from here because honestly, how could it be any worse?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Update ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This post was written from my viewpoint, and my viewpoint alone. This does not mean that anyone else agrees with me.

Eric’s sugar-coated version will be posted HERE…eventually.

He has also pointed out that the receipt issue could have been for tax purposes – although I believe if that was the truth, it should’ve been mentioned and we would’ve taken it more seriously.

Finally, it has been agreed that we will keep the hitch but relinquish the ball.

Sometimes Eric is way too nice for his own good. A lot of times. Most of the time. Occasionally friends will stop him from being nice to a fault, but frequently people take advantage of him. He also often acts before he thinks. For example, he volunteered to haul a whole ton of his friend’s stuff all the way to North Carolina…in my van. Who’s van? Mine. Did I volunteer? No.

Ok, so since that really stupid generous offer of his was accepted, now what? Come to find out that the plan is that we will only be given 1/2 the gas money needed to make the trip down and back. Once we get there and said friend’s stuff arrives, we are on our own to make it home. Sweet. Do we have a couple hundred dollars to throw at a trip in the middle of the summer hauling a bunch of stuff to a place that I, for one, do not want to go to in the heat of July? The answer? Absolutely not. After a whole lot of arguing discussing, I gave in (I honestly did not see a choice) and the plan is put into motion. Eric partially bribed me with the promise of at least one UAD event, perhaps even two. The van has a hitch put on (so that a U-Haul trailer can be hooked to it and hauled to NC), which in itself was a huge hassle and made me late to an appointment, and then we both take a week off of work.

After Mason’s Agility Class, we rush home and start to frantically pack the van (this is after Eric spent the previous evening loading the U-Haul with all of the things that were stored in our garage and spare bedroom). Two hours after our desired departure time (11:00 pm) we pull out of the driveway – fully loaded…to hear…..SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE accompanied by small jerks of the van. What the hell??? It sounds as though the tongue of the trailer is dragging on the ground. I get out and jog alongside as Eric drives and yup, it sure is. After some rather panicked phone calls (one of which was totally worthless and one of which was helpful – thanks Dad!) we decide to wait until morning to see what that stupid company U-Haul has to say. They have nothing. Oops.

So, we are allowed the use of a truck, a Chevy Silverado (not Eric’s) and are also, provided we go down and straight back, going to be given gas money not only to get there, but also to make it home – as long as we bring back the receipts of gas to prove that’s what we did. We cram all three dogs into the back and hope the weather stays clear (all of our stuff was in the open in the bed of the truck) and finally head out bright and early Sunday morning.

The plan is now to forgoe the things I was looking forward to and to just rush down, unload, and rush straight back. I was going along to make sure that Eric stayed alive (he tends to sleep while driving) and whole on the way back. The trip takes way, way, way longer than we thought (Google estimated 12 hours, it took us 18) but the scenery was beautiful and I made an honest attempt to have a good time and enjoy it.

Scenery:

I like bridges

Some shots of the dogs and I:

Spacious….

This is where Midas liked to be, that way when he was too hot, he showered us in dog-breath until we blasted the air conditioning and froze so that they would be comfortable.

We finally get to the house where we’re supposed to drop a load off and…there’s no house number and no one wants to answer their phone at 3 am. What to do now? We desperately wanted to have something enjoyable to come of this trip so we decide to go to the Ocean and have a chance at photographing the sunrise. We wanted to leave the damn trailer but unfortunately, Eric doesn’t feel he should leave it in front of a house potentially not the one we think it is…

2 hours later we make it to the coast (which, of course, we must pay the gas money for)…and it’s raining, pouring, cloudy, disgusting. Eric has yet to sleep, I’m exhausted and cramped from trying to sleep in extremely limited space and the sunrise isn’t even visible .

I could seriously have cried, I never even got out of the truck. Although, Eric got some nifty photos HERE.

We head back to the storage unit to unload all of the stuff crammed into the U-Haul.

Which takes two hours and a lot of sweat. Eric organizes a bunch of very useless stuff everything so as to be the easiest and most accessible and we finally leave to drop the rest of the bits off at the house we had tried to get to several hours earlier.

It is so hot that Midas can hardly function and the other two just want to lay around and pant. Miserable hot. I-never-want-to-move-to-North-Carolina hot (and that’s saying something). Humid and disgusting and sticky and…yeah.

Think this trip is already pretty horrible? Well, the trip home only got worse…

Kya’s first trip to the beach was quite awhile ago. Since the boys continue to be trained in Agility and SAR, and Kya’s class has ended, leaving less one-on-one time with her – we decided to take only her to the beach with us. We had high hopes of seeing a great sunset, since our North Carolina trip was postponed. It was rather disappointing (perhaps a foretelling of what the trip would be like??) but we still had a good time. I got to take some photos with a “real” camera this time as well…they’re not that good.

Eric was very absorbed in his Crocs for quite awhile:

We’ve been working on Kya’s recall, which is fantastic, if I do say so myself . There was a couple playing with their golden retriever about 50 yards away, with a Chuck-It (one of Kya’s favorite toys) and she badly wanted to go over and play too but I had no difficulty calling her off.

She also makes the funniest faces when she comes to me specifically – she’s always very excited to see me, very excited. I tried to capture that face but since I don’t know what I’m doing (Eric said the lighting and the speed with which she was moving was also not helping), I didn’t get what I was aiming for…

This is the face I desperately want to capture, because I think it’s hilarious, but alas, only a blurry photo for an example .

Maybe when I’m better with this camera…

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Among my gifts for my birthday, I forgot to mention one of my favorites. My Mom got her for me.

Front View:

Side View:

Close-up of her front:

Her back:

Closer of her back:

Top View:

This was probably close to my favorite gift this year. She’s so beautiful, petite, slender and serene – all things I am absolutely not and I just really, really like the style – thanks Mom!

Eric thinks that I have a collar fetish because each of the dogs have multiple collars. This is true, but they are so nice and I almost always get them either on sale or occasionally free (Mason). Tonight I decided to pull them all out and have a look how many I have…turns out I do have a lot lol.

Midas has the least collars of the three, which is odd because I’ve had him the longest.

But, I didn’t develop my collar fetish until after we got Mason so I guess it makes sense.

I also find it amusing that Kya has the same as Mason even though we haven’t had her nearly as long haha.

(she actually does have one more but Bandit is currently wearing it)

So…there they are – not too many…right?

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Yesterday, Eric got a text asking us to dogsit for Bandit, a Jack Russel Terrier. He is a young dog and since his buddy, a extremely obese lab, Rebel, died, he’s gotten fairly chunky as well.

Bandit before Rebel’s death:

Bandit now:

(yes, that’s a fat roll over his shoulder – from above he looks like a sausage)

Just for fun, this is Rebel:

(that’s Midas hidden behind him…)

Bandit loves to come and visit us because he gets attention and he has other friends to play with (although he is always attacking Midas’s poor face).

He “woo-woo”s when he’s excited:

Anyway, the text asked us to pick him up last night and watch him until September 2nd!!! How insane is that??? We are leaving in exactly 2 days to head to North Carolina…with three dogs, two people and a U-Haul. We began to devise a plan to make this possible and then come to the realization that he wants us to go pick his dog up right then – as he had already left! Crazy! Also, he added his wife’s sister’s Pomeranian, Apple too.

Turns out that he was “just kidding” about the September 2nd date but he was serious about us going to pick up Apple and Bandit and keeping them overnight, bringing our house total to 5 dogs and 3 people (Adam’s with us for training at IM).

My three were totally mystified by the mysterious bundle of fur that was Apple.

Eric with all 5 dogs:

Eric with Apple:

Bandit loves to play with Mason. I don’t know what it is about the little dude but he can get any dog to like him and engage in play.

The Pit and the Pom:

Kya was really excited I was outside playing in the morning and got a little butt-tucking zoomie attack:

Then we had to kennel everyone up and head for work. We kenneled Bandit and Apple together to hopefully keep Bandit them quiet.

We skipped Midas’s real Agility class this week to go to meet another SAR group with Mason, so we had to make it up the day after.

Read more HERE.

Midas’s class was fun but…difficult:

To find out if I fell on my face (or butt) go HERE.

After the Family Gathering, we headed over to my parents’ house to drop off the rocking chair/table set that we picked up for mom the other day. While we were there, I got to pick up my birthday presents . I also played around with the camera some more.

I ordered Magnum a spiffy collar from Collarmania with his name on it. It looks fantastic, but convincing him to come, sit, stay and not bark was near to impossible!!!

I also snapped a couple shots of Tess going like crazy…which is why she’s so incredibly skinny, she refuses to eat any more food and she’s already eating double what Kya eats a day, the same as Magnum and more than Midas does!!!

They did both take a breather to see Eric…momentarily:

I got some neat shots of Mom and her flowers too – at least I like them .

After that we headed to the beach so that Eric could try out his new lens contraption on me before he tries it on a couple for their engagement photos. I felt ridiculous but it was for a good cause .

Then I got to take a photo of Eric

HERE are the rest of Eric’s photos.

After that we finally made it home, exhausted, had some dinner and went to bed. A good day!

It had been a long time since I had seen Donnie and Michelle’s mixed puppy, Maks. I posted about him at 5 months and then again at 6 months (if you want to see his size). I saw him today at the Family Gathering and now he’s all grown up so handsome! He has the most beautiful face and he’s so friendly and gentle .

He’s still a big puppy though!

He liked to sit in the shade:

What a handsome dog!

There are a couple more photos of him HERE.

This afternoon we jetted up north (late as usual) to meet at Aunt Sue and Uncle Gary’s for a little family gathering. Dawn was here from Hawaii and everyone but Adam made it (he had to work ). Since we had just got our new camera, I had a lot of fun playing in Aunt Sue’s garden (she has beautiful flowers!):

We also got a couple of couples shots in the garden:

HERE are the rest of my garden photos.

There was some food, some fun in the pool and some family shots:

Eric took my current favorite photo of myself:

The rest of the pool/family photos are HERE.

Then there was a crazy (long) game of badminton played. Here are the teams:

Dawn and Eric

vs. Donnie and Michelle:

It was a humorous game, here are some action shots:

There was some falling:

Some laughing:

Some cheering:

And some sweating:

Ultimately, Donnie and Michelle won, although both Eric and Dawn swear they cheated . It was fun, at one point the net was even taken out! The rest of the badminton photos are HERE.

It was a very fun, relaxing time and Dawn and I also got to do some catching up:

And these are the looks that Eric got when he interrupted us (with the camera):

LOL, can you tell we’re related? The rest of Eric’s photos are HERE.

Good times with family .