Every two weeks I load up my dogs and head to Monterey County to check on and use my little beach house. But a month had gone by since the last time, due to 9 rainstorms that wreaked havoc on Northern California. Last week, it left one of my highways underwater.
I finally found a sunny day with a good forecast. My plan was to leave right after my online Zumba class this morning. I put the dog beds in the car, loaded up as much stuff as I could beforehand, but then I made a bad decision. I zipped up my suitcase before Zumba class and wheeled it to the front door.
Daisy doesn’t miss a thing. She knew what a zipped-up suitcase meant. She had a whole hour to fret about the car ride while I danced, squatted, stretched and twisted to Yuko’s choice of music. At ten, I put her harness on her and put the choke chain on her travel buddy, Pepper.
I got the dogs into the car and went back inside to get the cold bag of food and another couple of bags. Little did I know that while I was doing that, Daisy was nervously chewing in two the handle on a bag I’d already put on the seat next to her. She does that when she’s stressed.
I forgot to put the passenger seat in its upright position. When my son rides in my car, he reclines the seat, and then Daisy can reach it even though she is tethered to the head rest in the back. Today, as I drove down 680 in the middle lane, Daisy, a shaking and shivering bundle of nerves, looked at the big trucks on either side. I thought about giving her Prozac to her before we left, but the last time I did that, she puked it up right afterward (remember, nervous traveler).
Somehow, Daisy got herself onto the console between the two front seats and pushed her nervous self into my right shoulder, all 21 pounds of her. I pushed back so that she didn’t end up halfway on my lap, but I had lots of yardwork to look forward to from the storms. If I pushed back against for two hours, my right shoulder would be toast.
I exited the freeway at Vargas Road (22 miles into the trip), got the passenger seat into the upright position, rearranged the pillows so that Daisy felt secure, and got back on the freeway. The rest of the drive was less stressful, for me, anyway.
We got to the beach house, and there were limbs all over the back yard. The front yard wasn’t too bad since my huge Monterey pine had been trimmed just months before. I filled up the green can and then ate a quick cold lunch and headed out to run a couple of errands.
There’s more yard work to do (always), but I’ve learned to spread it out over multiple days so that I don’t hurt myself or get dizzy or get my shoulder making that clicking sound.
Daisy, you are one crazy dog, like when the power went out for an hour tonight, and you tried to bite the light from the flashlight, which was shining on my open book.
FIRST DATE, WORST DATE EVER! 