April 20, 2008
-
The Beast is Off to Centralia and Other Stuff…
The Beast left this morning (along with Baron) for his brother’s house in Centralia. His brother has a week off and the Beast is going there to join him and spend a week of fun and games in what we hope will be some nice spring weather. This will be unlike MY time in Chicago for Gallants wedding. I will have some alone time just kicking back and enjoying myself. If I have nice weather while HE is gone, that will be a bonus. The weatherman says it should be wonderful weather (even getting up to 80 a day or two) but you can’t always trust those guys. They lie. Oh, maybe not deliberately (I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt here) but they are more often WRONG than they are RIGHT. We shall see.
The Beast Jr. (aka Baron) knew something was up. He had seen the Beast take the suitcase out last night and pack it in the trunk. But when he turned off the garage light, I think he was confused. He took it in stride tho’ and didn’t feel he had to be velcro dog. This morning, however, once the Beast got dressed, Son-of-the-Beast took his position and would NOT leave his side. The poor dog had to pee and poop but wouldn’t do it until the Beast went outside with him and STAYED outside. All the time he was sniffing for a spot, he kept his head bobbing up to make sure the Beast was still standing on the deck. Once the Beast looked like he was heading for the door, Beast Jr. BOUNDED up the steps in two leaps to make sure he didn’t get left outside.
The Beast was enjoying keeping Jr. on edge. He grabbed up the leashes, two of the dog’s chew toys and headed out to the car but made Jr. stay inside. The dog actually had his eyes pressed up against the glass (and if you think about how a doberman’s head is shaped, it’s a funny mind picture. Almost like a cartoon image.
Then the Beast took his pillow out to the trunk (yes, he always takes his favorite feather pillow with when he travels) and put his jacket in the car. (Picture dog’s head pressed against glass with eyes almost touching it) I was amazed that all this teasing didn’t start him whining from the pure torture he must have felt.
The Beast finally picked up his travel mug that I had already filled with fresh coffee and headed for the door. This time Baron was NOT going to be left behind but kept right at the Beast’s side and slightly in front of his legs. He KNEW that he could slip out that door before you could blink in that position. The Beast stopped and made him sit and stay. I watched poor Baron literally shaking with anxiety that he might, despite his best efforts, be left behind. But the Beast just wanted to get out the door without being knocked over by this 90 lb. behemoth. You never saw such joy as when he was given the command *come*.
One of the reasons I am staying home without a lot of fuss by the Beast (he still prefers to take trips WITH me even if all I do is crochet while in the car) is that I must see my doctor as soon as I can get in. He put me on a new medication my last visit and, since then, I have been having some strange symptoms. At first, it was only on occasion. Now they are constant. I really don’t know for sure if they are related but I figure better safe than sorry. It’s painful so I want to get to the bottom of it because my pain medication for my back doesn’t affect it one way or another. I also have some muscle swelling on my side that is getting worse. Like I said, it might be totally unrelated but I can’t think of any recent injury that might be causing either or both. We shall see what the doctor says.
Another reason the Beast didn’t argue much with me is that, unless it rains (and there’s no assurance that it will), our fruit trees are in a *tender way* and need to be kept watered while in that delicate condition. We even have some cherries on our trees! Our red pear tree is loaded with baby pear-lings. We also spotted the beginnings of a couple apples on one of the apple trees. So, of course, the Beast is suffering all the anxieties of potential farmer-hood. I played off those anxieties because we lost some fruit (and some veggies in our garden) last year when we were gone for a week because no one watered while we were gone. He has vivid memories of that still. This year, he will take no chances. We have the start of a lot of peaches and nectarines plus our plum tree is just loaded with small, baby plums. We may just have the start of a fresh fruit salad.
Well, I want to try to make it to the Indian Pow-Wow in Guntersville this afternoon. It’s the last day and there should be some bargains to be had if I am lucky. Hope you all have had a great weekend. Love you all.
