Minneapolis Excursion

A couple of weeks ago my roommate quit his trucking job with Minn Star and I drove to Eagan, MN, to bring him home. I packed up the dogs, all 4, and headed north around noon on a Friday. Ross, my roommate, had suggested I put the seats down in the back of the Corolla to give them more room. With a quilt covering the back and sheets tied on the front seats, to minimize the accumulation of hair we were set. Remember these are 45-75 lb dogs. I brought some snacks and their gear, leahes, gallon of water, bowls and the dry food they always eat, and minimal clothes for me. We drove up 183 and took the toll road to Georgetown, smooth sailing! Wanting to conserve fuel, I kept it to 65 which is difficult for me but cruise control helped. That toll pass comes in handy, too not to mention the GPS.

So, up I-35 we go, thru Ft. Worth where I caught a little friday afternoon traffic, it wasn't too bad. I had wanted to stop at Cabela's and let the dogs ut but traffic was too heavy to get over. About this time i was hankering for Whataburger and under the mistaken assumption that once I left Texas the would be no more Whataburgers, I searched and stopped at what I thought was the last one in the state. Mm mm, I love Whataburger! Also tanked up on Coke, I knew I would need the caffeine. So up and around Oklahoma City on to Wichita by midnight where we spent the night at Motel 6. NOTE: Motel 6 accepts pets with no extra charge! It was a little frustrating g trying to call motels I found on the GPS from the phone which is also mounted in the window with Bluetooth and speaker through the car speakers. I knew there must be an easier way but couldn't remember. I was bit apprehensive about taking g the dogs to a motel, it was their first time. They were perfect angels.

Got up and left the motel at 7. Lovely GPS found a Starbucks are the next exit. Their coffeer is wonderful. But don't bother with the egg 'n muffin, McDonalds is MUCH better! On to Eagan, which is a suburb of Minneapolis. Stopped in Olathe KS, which is a suburb of Kansas City, for lunch at Subway, had a brilliant idea and asked for a 12" cold cut sandwich, just meat not even bread for the babies, they loved it! It was the first thing I could them to eat! Also, I needed more Capri pants so I St the GPS to search for Dress Barn and after a false search, the second one was right where it was supposed to be. Found exactly what I was looking for in no time flat, of course I kept the car running with the a/c on for the pups. This little detour actually kept me out if a long line of traffic's in a constuction zone, bonus!

We stopped at a nice shady rest area, I think the last one in Iowa because Ross said all the ones in MN were closed due to state budget problems. We even tried to find a geocache but it was overrun with weeds and I didn't feel like bushwacking. About 9pm we rolled into Eagan and found Ross. We headed over to Panda Express for some dinner.

Hotter 'n Hell

Well, here I sit on my beautiful deck smoking a clove cigarette, drinking a wine with sprite zero, eating grapes from the fridge, listening to the sprinkler and wind chimes. It's about all you can do when the temp in the house is 94F. This is my second night with no A/C. When I arrived home at 7pm it was 98 and that's with all the windows open all day! Yesterday it was only 97 at 6:30 with all the windows shut, go figure! Not to to worry, the repair man will be here first thing but he didn't specify exactly what time 'first thing' was.

The insurance co. put me thru the ringer today negotiating the price of A/C repair when the outside temps have been in the 100's for nearly 60 days. I hate to say, but will admit, I don't sit out on my lovely deck nearly as much as I should. And what's with the smoking? Somehow, decks are meant for smoking. I normally only smoke when I'm around friends that smoke, usually on the porch cause nobody smokes inside their house anymore, but sitting in the breeze listening to the water and chimes just begs for a smoke, and wine.

The sun has finally gone down and a bright 3/4 moon is staring down at me. It's really rather idyllic. Last night I considered sleeping on the deck. Which reminds me, the only good thing about a drought, and we are in the worst drought in recorded history for this area, is that there aren't any mosquitoes and hardly any flies. Some mornings I see several wasps sipping the dew off the roof of my car. That's another thing, this morning when I got in my car to go to work, it felt cooler than my house! Residual from the a/c being on all the way home I'm sure.

Surprisingly, I did manage to sleep last night. Luckily my bed is right in front of a large window. Though I did consider gathering up all the dogs and going to Motel 6. Tonight should be better. Ross left his Igloo a/c. It consists of a marine Igloo, albeit a small one, with a fan unit that mounts on top. Just fill the Igloo with ice and plug the fan unit into a 12 volt plug and voila, a/c! It's a trucker thing so they don't have to idle the trucks all the time. I guess I'm gonna be brave and go in and set up my Igloo a/c and get some sleep so the repair man won't surprise me 'first thing.'

Baby broke her leg

Poor baby (and I use that term loosely since she is almost 8) broke her leg the other morning. Don't know how she did it. The vet and I presume she stepped or jumped and landed in a hole. This was before work mind you. We were off to the vet's by 6:45 am. The photo is her after we got her home. Doesn't she look sad? Really she's still kind doped up from the anesthesia. Don't feel too bad for her she was up and running around dragging that splint around 24 hrs. later. After a few days I heard a crash from the spare bedroom, then clump, bang, clump, bang, etc. Somehow when she jumped off the bed the cord of a small plastic fan wrapped around her leg above the splint and she was running down the hall with the fan 'chasing' her, she was terrified! A week and a half later as I was taking a walk, she insisted on joining me and decided to take a swim in the pond. By the time we finished our walk her splint was nearly dissolved and what remained was covered in mud! I took her back to the vet and Dr. Jackson at Guadalupe Valley Veterinary Clinic removed it. The Dr. thinks Arwen should heal just fine. The break is hairline and the damage is mostly to the tendon.