Looking for a dog cage...

Ah well... we left our lovely dog at my sister-in-law's with Middley and Littley on Friday night (tied in with the return trip of Biggey to camp). Our neice mentioned on the Saturday that he'd tried to get under the gate, but his head was too big for the gap (which filled me with various humerous visions). This set hubby into a blind panic about our holiday. We go away on Saturday. He had two people having the dog, his friend and my dad - but he hadn't told either of them that the dog was going to the other's...

He has sat and thought about this great escape all weekend and come to the conclusion that under no circumstances can the dog be left. He would probably try to return home like "The Incredible Journey" and the dog would be in great distress whilst looking for him (he is microchipped - dog, not hubby... but that might not be a bad idea...). So. Like the dimwit that I am, yesterday morning I rang the lady who owns the holiday cottage. I explained about the dog, he's well behaved, wouldn't be left alone, blah, blah, blah, and she "yes". Now, hubby is delighted about this. I am now thinking about the space in the car. The dog cage is huge, and he is only small, but he has plenty of room in it. I think I could fit two of our children in there (again, not a bad idea...).

This set into motion a hunt for a dog cage. Measurements were taken of ours, placed against measurements of other cages, cost factors (although because it's for the dog he wouldn't care how much it cost) and I can tell you at lunchtime this was fine. At 4pm it was ok. At 9.30pm it was wearing thin and I went to bed at 11.30pm with it having been the last discussion. He finally decided the one to order this morning - and I kid you not, it's the first one he looked at.

Theatre group is having a mad panic about everyone having their holidays (that we all wrote down at the start of the year) and the fact that people are away during the last couple of weeks rehersals for the show we put on in a couple of weeks time (us included - oops). So there was an extra one yesterday. He was in a good mood, so we walked down with him cleaning the dashboard of the car. He has a thing about cleaning and the car is no exception. We came home to find that he'd wired in a horn from the HGV he used to drive. Oh My God. We're going to be driving along and when he chooses we are going to play tunes to oncoming traffic... I mean seriously? It reminds me of the little black and yellow horn that you could add to your bike when you were little... He's also put the satnav into the car and with my help he's set it up to his phone so that he can take and make calls through the satnav. Now this is a great idea, it means he's not fiddling about with his phone whilst driving, but the fact he's got the satnav out of the box and has installed it in the car has me wondering. Does this mean he's starting to second guess his own satnav ability? I've always relied on him for directions because he really has a photographic memory of any map. Now that that's in the car on a permanent basis (prior to this it's only been me that's used it, and I think I can safely say I've used it twice) does it mean that he's forgetting routes or is it simply so he can use the phone. He tried all day Saturday with his friend (whilst on way to camp with Biggey) to get the two connected, and in the end at about 4.30pm I asked to have a look at it. They'd done everything right, but the only thing that needed to be done was to make his phone visible to the satnav. It took 5 seconds. I then asked him if he wanted his contacts transferred to the satnav with a resounding yes. So this is now done. He took me to the car at 10.30pm last night to show me how it works. He spent the next ten minutes ringing the house and confusing Middley when he hung up because she didn't know it was him ringing the house. He thought this was hilarious. Well it was a break from the dog cage...

He's decided petrol is too expensive (which it is) and that I should walk everywhere (which is justifiable) but yesterday had me in tears. I had to go and get something for tea, and dog food, and milk, and bread, and today's lunch etc, etc. Now it wasn't a lot, but by God it was heavy. I had one of the reusable hessian bags, and honestly, if I'd found someone with a donkey to carry the load up the hill I would have kissed them, maybe even the donkey. It's not a long walk, but it's all up hill, I am of the larger variety, the heat was horrific and for all it wasn't a long distance to walk home, it might as well have been a marathon. Having said that, I do feel good when I get home and throw the bag down on the counter so it's not all bad. I was almost crawling past the car in the drive with the bag strung over my shoulder like I was back at highschool and without realising he was in the car he blasted one of his new horn tunes. Just as well I was close to the concreate because I nearly hit the driveway like a tonne of lead. Looking up to see the tears rolling down his cheeks, holding his ribs because he's laughing so much and almost needing a defibrilator to restart my heart my first thought was "yeah... kill me now. I have to walk back down again in two hours time... if I'm still alive...".

So I'm gathering my thoughts this morning (just - nearly lunchtime) before I trek back down the hill to the bank, post office for bills, shop for tea etc, etc. and I'm thinking that in a few more weeks I might just be fat rather than "I can't believe this woman still has a pulse" fat - yay :o). Although, the response I got last night asking about the bike in the shed is unrepeatable - suffice to say, he suggested I did a little more walking before putting the tyres on the bike under such strain... he has a point.