POOP SCOOPIN' (uses S*** word)

I'm having real issues with shit.  And, apparently I am not the only one that has issues.  Just think about the sayings there are about the word...

-- Shit on a shingle (I think that's a jail term for some kind of food item. But, I wouldn't know).
-- Shit hits the fan
-- Holy Shit Batman (it was censored, but I'm sure Robin said it.)
-- Scared the shit out of...
-- In a world of Shit
-- Shit, I forgot!

I'm sure there are more but today was "shit on a tree" for me!  Uh, I guess I had better explain.

My dilemma since we've arrived with the dogs in Tennessee is what to do with it.  We are not supposed to put it in the trash; the dump where we take out trash clearly states on the sign that we are not to bring animal waste. 

My sister-in-law Sandy said toss it in the woods; that's what people do with it. She reasoned with me that there are all sorts of critters in the woods and they all do the natural thing right there and they don't worry about where. Ugh, coming from the public dog world in California poop is collected, bagged and thrown away.  Old habits are hard to break, but I'm trying.

So, I buy the spring loaded model of this contraption designed for ease and style.  Only takes a few minutes and a little thought to figure out how to pick it up, but it's a little more tricky to get the groove of the toss and release in the woods.  We have five acres of woods next door that's privately owned, but not developed.  We also have woods at the back of our property that is too dense to walk about in until the leaves fall. Call me selfish, but I choose the woods next to us instead of us.   

As I said the swing back and release is crucial.  My first toss failed miserably and I dropped the "treasures" just a few feet away my side of it's intended target and had to perform the re-pick move.  Finally, the turds found a resting place, but I figured that like anything, practice makes perfect.  With four dogs I had to get better so I picked up fallen apples and practiced the toss and release... obviously the success is in the release. 

Feeling proficient, as well as the pups getting back to normal after a food change I was feeling pretty confident about the motions, but not comfortable with the disposal.  Those old pick/bag/dispose habits made the toss/forgettabout attitude hard to deal with. 

Bottom line is after I successfully played poop darts with a tree, the next time I made a trip into town to the Walmart I picked up 150 poop bags.  I know I'm not supposed to take them to the dump, but I need to work on my attitude before trying the woods thing again.

PAT'S MISADVENTURE

My GPS has made me pretty direction stupid and I just follow where she says to go. As well, I've come to the conclusion that she's mad at me because I have her running on 2008 software.  She got me good the other day. 

I was just going to the Tractor Supply to pick up dog food...

I wanted to try the back way route out of our neighborhood and keyed in the Kroger store because it's in the same shopping strip.  I didn't pay attention to the street nor the miles my "gal" told me it would be and took off.  I knew I was okay the first 3 or 4 turns and then "she" told me to turn right instead of left when I was probably three quarters of the way there. 

I start on the every day basic road and then I'm going through residential areas where the roads are twisting and turning, doing the roller coaster thing.  I always wondered what "through hill and dale" meant and I'm thinking I was pretty close to that.  Anyhoo, what was supposed to be a 4 mile and 15 minutes drive has turned out to be going on 45 minutes and I was clueless to where I was at.  I did have that false sense of security a GPS gives, but was seriously wondering about my "gal".  I finally realize that I'm in Lake Tansi, which is way south of my neighborhood Kroger store, but giving in to my "gal" the benefit of the doubt and my love of adventure I kept moving on.  However, when I got to this road...

I'm thinking maybe I better think of an alternative.  So, after several more miles of similar terrain I decide I would change my direction and head for home.  That's when I realized that my GPS was set on "shortest distance" and she was taking me as the crow files, but obviously not to my Kroger.

After changing from "shortest" to "fastest" she put me on a different road...

... and then I did start to see repeat streets and two hours later after finally finding my local Tractor Supply and Kroger I pulled into the driveway. 

Thanks for "listening".

HOTEL BETTY

Hotel Betty Big Horn is home and resting comfortably.  Since we aren't moving any of the furniture into the house until the carpet is installed, this is where we're sleeping at night.  Much better than a pallet on the floor for sure.  Speaking of carpet...  it wasn't supposed to arrive until June 18 and then an install date was to be determined.  Hooray! They called last night and the carpet has arrived and we will know today when it's actually going to be at our door step.

The big dogs are going through somewhat of a shock since I've been crating them about 11:00 p.m. or so, and they are sleeping in the "dog room".  I think I'll continue this practice once we officially move into the house.  Of course, Daddy's P Effn Princess Lucy gets to sleep with us in the big bed. 

This morning (as every morning), I wake early and feel guilty that the big girls are crated so I get up, walk to the house and take them out for pee, breakfast and poop.  I have learned that off leash is not a great idea and I'm especially glad that I had Lucy leashed today.  I opened the door to the camper and I saw a family of squirrels (about 5) under Brian's truck.  I thought it would be cute to see Lucy's reaction.  She spotted them and her Flexi turned into a yo yo.  This little Chiwennie wanted them BAD and in a split second the leash extended to it's end and rebounded much to the little dogs dismay.  We contined on, and little Lucy was very proud of herself that "she" chased one of the varmits up a tree.  The bad news is that she was so preoccupied that it took me forever to get her to focus on the potty time.

THE GRAND INTERNET EXPERIENCE

I'm finally back on Internet... finally!  What a comedy of errors this has been.  Admittedly, I waited until we arrived in Tennessee to schedule Directv and when I signed up I inquired about Internet bundling.  Boy, oh boy what a mistake this has been.


Once I got the TV taken care of, they forwarded me to "All-Connect", I think in India. They told me that Frontier would be my provider and that installation would be June 8 and that Frontier would be calling me in 48 hours.  I never got the call so when I called back Directv the guy told me that the order was pending and they were looking for a signal.  WTF!  A Frontier office is on the road to downtown, so I stopped by to see if they had anything listed in their computers.  They assured me that I was wrong because they don't partner with Directv, they partner with Dish and they would not be my internet provider if DTV initiated the deal.  End of conversation!


So, I called back Directv and he assured me that his computer screen is telling him that Frontier would be my provider, but the installation was scheduled on June 14 and it's all in their hands.  I said, "Okay, give me a reference number and phone number to call for this Frontier that says no way will they be my provider".  He gave it to me and asked if they could be of any further help.  I told him that he wasn't any help at all, so no.


I proceeded to called Frontier at the number I was given and the gal on the other end kept insisting that if I made my arrangements with DTV that they would NOT be my provider.  End of story again, but not so much.  I said, "Listen, humor me.  Just key in this reference number just to see if anything comes up".   She gave me this moanful waste of time sigh, but agreed.  Then she started asking me my name, etc and said that, yes, they had an installation scheduled for June 14.  I win! 


That evening I get a recorded call that my internet connection tech would be at my place between 8:00 and 10:00 on June 8.  At this point I am doubtful of everything and wasn't expecting a tech to show, but amazing enough he showed up the next morning.  I wonder what will happen on the scheduled June 14 date?  I'm still curious to find out how I will be billed.  How can Directv bundle my internet with a provider that claims they don't work with them? 


All of my old email addresses are still working, but my new email is wilkings1952@frontier.com.  And that's another thing; they can't get my name correct.  At first it showed up as Tah Wilkson and I call them to correct that and they did correct the last name, but then the tech set my email up he set it up as Wilkings not Wilkins and they never corrected the first name... so I guess I'm still not finished with this saga.