I've had worse days than this.
It started before 6 a.m. Axel the Rottweiler is spending the week with us.
He does what he wants. Fortunately, most of the time, he's a pretty laid-back dog. Speaks English, to some extent. Queries with his face.
So I got up at 6 and let his big ass out to pee. After he peed and sniffed around awhile, I said, "Good boy. Let's go in."
He didn't want to.
I went inside to pour a cup of coffee while Axel finished his business. I'd made the coffee and set the timer the night before. I'd poured in 8 cups of water, but when I picked up the pot, there were only about two cups in it, and there were grounds in it. I raised the lid on the coffee-maker. The basket was lipping full of water. What the hell?
Turned out, I'd washed the coffee carafe - but not its lid - in the dishwasher the night before and had forgotten to put lid on the carafe when I made the coffee. When I put the lid on, the coffee began to drip. I went outside to find Axel.
He was nowhere in sight. I called, I whistled. No Axel. I was about to go inside when I heard a lapping noise. The sound led me behind the shed, where Axel had found a bucket of old motor oil. There was a patty of leaves on top of the oil, and water floating on top. He was drinking the water. I about had a stroke.
I ran to the water hose and filled up his water bowl and called him over. He drank the whole thing and immediately barfed on the sidewalk. I hosed it off and coaxed him onto the back porch, where he barfed again. Hosed that off, too. Finally, when it seemed he was done puking, I led him inside, strained the coffee, and got dressed for work.
Got there by 7, where Project Year 5 awaited. I worked until 1, when I had to go to a funeral. My first cousin, one with whom I grew up, died last week. So sad. His parents, now in their early 80s, are beyond words in grief.
The funeral seemed to last forever.
As soon as it was over, rain started pouring from the sky.
I did not go to the cemetery.
Drove home in the rain. As I parked my car, I glanced over at my Wrangler, parked in the driveway with a canvas cover over the top. We'd picked up this cover at the Jeep rally last month. Week before last, when the weather was warm, I took the back windows out of the Wrangler and lowered the top for a few days. When rain threatened, we'd raised the top and put the cover on for the first time. This weekend, I took the cover off and dropped the top again and ran my errands in the Wrangler. Last night, we put the cover on, but didn't raise the top. This morning, I missed the weather news because I was chasing a dog and cleaning up puke, and I did not know it was going to rain (I should have known it would rain because I watered the garden yesterday). By the time I got home from the funeral, so much rain had puddled on the Wrangler cover that it was sagging - BIG - over the front seats.
Crawling inside the Jeep and attempting to push the bulge upward to empty the water down the sides of the Jeep was a bad idea. When I pushed upward on the bulge, all the water went straight into the front passenger floorboard. I raised up the carpet, pulled out the drain plug, and tried to swoosh out some of the water, while rain poured down my back. It's pushing 5:00, and there's a dog in the house that probably needs a potty break. I leave off on the swooshing to go let the dog out.
The dog bolted out the door when I opened it. While he peed on my flowers, I went back to put up the Wrangler top and put the cover back on.
It is not a 1-person job, but it's on. Sort of.
At least the dog didn't give me much trouble about coming in from the rain.
He shook off in the living room.
No comments:
Post a Comment