Falon’s World

Woke up on Saturday morning relatively early considering how late some went to bed on Friday, to rain. Not a storm, just a steady drizzle. I was a little apprehensive about going canoeing when it wasn’t looking so great but was told the weather forecast was to be 75 and sunny. So, we headed out to the rental, did some dropping and exchanging of vehicles (Old Goldie played her part in that) and then we started out on the river.

We had an odd number of people, so Nick took a Kayak:

Just like last year, we saw some birds on the river, not as many though:

Some members of the canoe trip were a little more…risky, than others:

Then it started to thunder off in the distance, then a little closer, until it started to rain. I was already freezing, so I took Nick’s generous offer and put his sweatshirt on:

We came upon a bank where there were several people using a rope to swing out over the water and plunge into the river. Eric started insisting that everyone stop because he wanted to do it, so we did. Then he got up there, and was too scared to go first haha. So, after several other people went, Eric began to prepare, I was watching from below when all of a sudden SPLOOSH! I was under water. What in the hell??? Ben had been coming down beside my canoe, slipped in the clay bottom/drop-off, landed on the end and opposite side from where I was and catapulted me into the river. At least the water was very warm lol. After we had fished out what we could, I watched Eric again prepare and he swung out, I yelled when to let go in case he couldn’t see (he took his glasses off), and he screamed like a girl and thunked back into the hillside before swinging back out and eventually letting go - it was hilarious .

Shortly after we dumped the remaining water out of my canoe, we headed out, although we made several stops along the way, to peel off drenched clothing, go to the bathroom, and drink:

Next thing we know, it starts pouring (we were back on the water again) and thundering like crazy. The water was coming down so hard and fast we could hardly see, let alone dodge any submerged stumps or trees. It was really, really cold and the river water really warm, steam was lifting off into the sky. We stopped and got into the water to have a little warmth:

Then the weather cleared up, the skies turned blue and the sun came out:

We turned a bend in the river and saw this:

So of course, the guys wanted to stop to prove their manliness by jumping off yet another something-in-the-air:

Eric jumped again…well sort of, he lowered himself from the branches pretty far before he let go:

We left from there and it downpoured again, complete with thunder.

This soaked my second borrowed sweatshirt and then I was down to just a towel (not mine either):

Kelsey and I were both freezing and shivering like crazy by this point. Then the sun came out again (are you sensing a theme?):

By the time we reached the end of the trip, it was clouding up and looking like rain again so we hurried and packed up the van and headed back to the cabin.

Ben exercised the boys for us (and Kya a little):

(he’s hitting a ball with the bat and they’re retrieving, if you click on the photo, there’s a note)

We gathered around the campfire for awhile, I was freezing still and couldn’t get warm:

That didn’t last long before 1/2 of us succumbed to the need to nap (and get warm). Eric woke me up awhile later, I ventured outside for a bit, but a couple of people had not gotten up from their nap and shortly after I went to bed for the night. Eric came in much later after playing Euchre for several hours.

Last year was the first official Webteam Canoe Trip. This year some people weren’t going and there were some newbies along as well. Eric told Nick, Dan and Kelsey to meet at our house at a time I knew was totally unreasonable for us to be ready by - and I was right. So, we frantically rushed around trying to get everything together before we headed out: the dogs and us in the van and the other three following behind. When we stopped for gas I started to scope out the back of the van and realized that while Eric had remembered the tent and the EZ-Up (to go over the tent in case of rain), he had forgotten sleeping bags, pillows, air mattress etc.

We arrived at Ben’s cabin and decided the dogs could sleep in the garage in their kennels and we would sleep upstairs in the extra beds. It was a laid-back evening. Predictably, we had to run to the store and pick up some things we had forgotten and then everyone settled in for some card playing and campfire sitting.

There was an attempt to make popcorn over the fire, which resulted in:

Bailey decided he wanted to go and visit the neighbor’s black lab, Ben had to carry him back and Midas was very excited at his reappearance:

As the night wore on and people drank more, it was decided that laying out in the middle of the road would be a good idea.

Although Eric did get some cool night shots:

There was quite a lot of alcohol consumed:

Although that does not include several wine bottles full of other “stuff” .

After everyone was sufficiently drunk, we all went to bed, some of us earlier than others…

With Mason being in SAR now and his Agility classes and Midas no longer being in Rally, he’s started to feel a little bit more needy. Kya never has this problem because when she wants it, she constantly begs for attention. Although Midas is still in Agility, he is just feeling a little jealous that now. Instead of being the one that always gets to come with me places, Mason is more frequently the tag-along. Midas has never been a real touchy-feely dog. He likes to be nearby but he’s content with that. He very, very rarely asks to be petted. In fact, when he’s feeling like he is not getting enough attention he mostly conveys those feelings with deep sighs and pathetic looks - I still have to reach for him to pet him though.

*SIGH* I’m so neglected

Mom?! Hello?! Are you even going to NOTICE me here???

When these infrequent times come, I always give him tons of affection and attention and after a short while he wanders off - to lay nearby but just out of reach. I love my heart-dog .

As of today, we are now an accepted member of K-9 One and no longer with MISAR. I am very pleased with this switch and look forward to posting many more SAR stories on Leapin’ Labs of our training adventures.

We have also applied with Kent County SAR and are awaiting our application to be processed.

Today at work things were a little slow, so I started to play around with some photos in PhotoShop. I’m just now becoming a little more comfortable, enough to explore some of the options. This is what I came up with:

I also did this one from the other night:

I thought they turned out kind of neat . (I know, for those PhotoShop users that may read this blog post, I didn’t do a whole lot - but I still liked the effect)

Tonight, after SAR, Eric and I met Tara and Nate at our house to head out to Holland beach for some engagement photos (some may remember that Eric took their Proposal photos as well). It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny, but the clouds came in for the sunset, so there really wasn’t much of one . He still got some good photos though (Eric being the King of procrastination still hasn’t posted those). Here are some I took of him taking pictures of them ha:

For those that may not have seen Eric for awhile, check out his hair:

Since I was working with the crappy 20D, I didn’t take too many photos, but here are a few that I did get:

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As I said before, this vacation had several different goals, all of which (for once), we reached .

Eric maneuvered all of my living room furniture and manipulating it to fit into the bed of the truck, which was a pretty amazing feat actually. It all made it safely up to my parents’ house where Mom helped us refinish it. The tables had never been done, since before I bought them, but the chest had to be redone, since Eric scratched it all up again. Mom had generously offered to help us out (and let us use all of her stuff), so we took her up on that .

First stripper had to be poured on top, and then all of the old finish scraped off:

That took us a really, really long time. And multiple applications of the very potent stripper:

Then everything had to be sanded, first with medium grit sandpaper, then with fine.

Since the edges ended up a different color, they had to be stained multiple times to even up the color with the table tops.

We still weren’t attaining the desired results so (with Mom’s suggestion) we decided to apply a layer of polyurethane combined with a darker stain, in hopes it would hold the color and even out. Then I applied the stain to the table tops:

After that dried, Mom added the top layer of polyurethane. Then we had to wait all night for it to dry before Eric added the final layer. They look fantastic!! And they’re waterproof. But, the chest wasn’t quite ready to go home, Mom is going to add yet another layer of polyurethane for us and then we’ll pick it up next time we come to visit.

We spent the rest of the time outside with the dogs or playing in the pool. Mom did quite a bit of gardening, here is her dog, Magnum (our old foster), he likes to hang outside in the yard.

Here’s Tess, she gets locked in the house unless someone is right there to watch her, because she will run herself into the ground.

I also got some photos of a couple of Mom’s flowers while we were looking at the garden.

Mom also found a baby praying mantis while she was in the garden:

The tables weren’t our only project. We also made some new leads for Mason and Kya. They already have some leads that we made but I wanted lighter-weight slip leads to use for SAR for Mason and on Kya when she’s not wearing a martingale. We are trying out some new rope clamps on Mason’s lead, we’ll see how they do.

I made them so I could also clip them on a collar if needed. This enables them to be clipped around my body, over my shoulder for ease of carry as well.

The Rollenhagen’s were up visiting again but I wasn’t feeling good in the evening so I laid down and watched a movie while my parents and Eric partied with them. He didn’t come to bed until really late but he got some amazing star photos and some neat night shots of their house. Hopefully he’ll post those later…

Since our North Carolina trip was more of a hellcation than a vacation, we took the opportunity of the extra time off to go up north to my parents’ house for a few days (a staycation perhaps?). Wednesday through Saturday to be exact.

The goal of our trip was three-fold: to exercise the dogs, to refinish my living room tables, to relax by the pool and get a tan. Mission accomplished!!!!

The dogs got loads of exercise:

Everyone loves the Chuck-It (see Kya cheating waiting in the field).

Especially Mason:

Kya like it too:

Midas likes to be competitive:

He likes the chasing part but not the retrieving part. And only until he gets hot, then he’s out.

Mason is the only one persistent enough to not come back unless he has the ball (see him in the background, in the field):

Once Midas has lost interest in chasing, that’s when the grazing starts.

Mason most often is the one that gets the ball and retrieves it:

Occasionally though, Kya will get it. She’s only just starting to get the whole “retrieve” concept. So, she much prefers for Mason to try to get it from her…

…she also enjoys parading around with it - for a little while:

Then she usually lays down and starts to chew on it, that’s our chance to get it from her…Mason likes to guard it until it’s safe in our hands lol.

We played until everyone was heaving…that was my opportunity to get some group shots.

While Eric got some water for them:

Everyone guzzled down some water:

Mason’s the sloppiest:

Then everyone relaxed:

Good times!

To be continued….

After unloading the U-Haul for the second time…

We all load back into the truck and begin the journey home.

We are already exhausted, eager to get home and just want this horrible trip over with so we don’t even stop and sight-see. It starts to pour again…with all of our stuff in the bed. Who cares? At this point we just desperately want to get home. Eric starts to fall asleep so I take the wheel for 3 hours or so (North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia), until I’m so cramped and in pain from being in the same position throughout the whole trip that we are forced to stop and stretch - the dogs needed some time to move around as well.

We finally make it to Ohio (thank goodness!!!!!)…and hit a deer. A buck. It bangs up the front of the truck a little but nothing major and everything still works. Since it was the parent of the person we were moving we were forced to get and incident report from the local police. Who were all so busy that they asked us if we could possibly not get one, but when Eric insisted, had us come to them to receive it. After another 45 minutes of waiting and photo-taking (by the police of the truck) we finally got back on the road. Could anything else go wrong?

Yes. Mason has diarrhea in the back seat. Luckily it’s mostly on the dog blanket but…ugh. So we stop at a Meijer gas station and clean it out as best we could and I force some Pepto-Bismol tabs down Mason’s throat (during the process of which he manages (in his mad thrashing) to slice open my thumb. The dog will eat poop but not the meds - go figure) and get back on the road yet again. We don’t get very far before we’re both drooping and absolutely MUST stop. We sleep for a couple of hours, potty the dogs and get back on the road. Only to stop a couple of hours later, again for more sleep. This trip pretty much sapped both of us totally. We’re hardly talking at this time and both just want to get home and shower and fall into a bed where our knee caps aren’t bent continuously and our butts aren’t completely numb.

We eventually do make it home (I don’t know about you, but I had some doubts there for awhile) and start to unload - only to find out that we must get a move on cleaning the truck out because it has to be picked up immediately. Things are even taken so far as to accuse us of not getting home at 3 am like we planned (how DARE we sleep!!) and to blame that on the dogs (not on the stupidity of the entire trip as a whole), we are shown no sympathy or understanding after this insane favor we carried out and forced to begin the unpacking process at this moment. I am more angry than I’ve been in awhile and allowed myself a quick shower before we vacuumed every inch of that cab, washed the windows, scrubbed the carpet and in the end, left it cleaner than when we received it.

At this point in the vacation, every single thing I was looking forward to didn’t happen and we are both so exhausted that we don’t want to do anything else but sleep. Unfortunately, we get yet more…news. Since we didn’t use the van, we are told that some random guy we don’t know is going to remove the hitch so that it can be sold on EBay and the money made back that was spent. I am incensed. Here we drive to NC, hauling a crap-ton of crap, it takes SIX HOURS longer than planned, deleted all vacation-y enjoyment from the trip, were treated like we were not trusted to use money only for gas only to get there and find that no one will tell us which house to drop the stupid trailer at, are told that our crappy trip to the coast for the sunrise must be funded out of our own pocket, unload the crap-ton of crap at various places (after Eric had loaded it to begin with), sleep crammed inside the cab of the stupid truck, get chewed out for sleeping and are now told that we must accommodate yet another time for the van to be “worked on” …not by the company that put the hitch on, but by some other guy, because “$300 can’t be wasted on Eric right now”, so it must be sold on EBay.

Meanwhile, very little appreciation is shown, in fact the only thing I heard was more complaining and whining. We were treated as a moving company (and storage if it comes down to it) and we had to request that gas be paid both directions. We were not offered accommodations, let alone expenses for food or anything remotely enjoyable. Nope. It was all about getting the crap-ton of crap there and then screw what happened to us. The result of this trip? I’m still so disgusted and angry I can’t even talk about it without wanting to hit something. Never again. Oh and did I mention that this friend that Eric did all of this for did not even come to thank him in person or even come to say good-bye. Yup. That’s how this all ended. One can only hope that this “vacation” gets better from here because honestly, how could it be any worse?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Update ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This post was written from my viewpoint, and my viewpoint alone. This does not mean that anyone else agrees with me.

Eric’s sugar-coated version will be posted HERE…eventually.

He has also pointed out that the receipt issue could have been for tax purposes - although I believe if that was the truth, it should’ve been mentioned and we would’ve taken it more seriously.

Finally, it has been agreed that we will keep the hitch but relinquish the ball.