Sore hands, pooch pandemonium

My dad originally said he expected to pull into our place around 3 on Friday.  Things were slow at work so I was able to leave a bit early so I would be able to meet them.  Well on my way home after hearing from Ali that they weren’t there yet I called dad to see where they were.  He was only at mile marker 240 something (we are 111), evidently they got a late start because they had to wait for a dog bakery to open.  Dad has never been one to care about time, schedules or anything that would in some manner restrict his free will so it did not come to me as a surprise that instead he would be rolling in closer to 6:30.

As soon as they arrived with their two black lab mixes (Clara and Maggie) all hell broke loose as expected.  After a very brief reacquaintance period the dogs were full out nuts, running around and playing with each other like they didn’t skip a beat from our summer New Mexico trip.  Sadie and Clara are an especially good match, they both love to run and play fight.  We decided I would just run out and grab pizza for dinner, nothing fancy is normally required as far as eating arrangements go with dad.  We caught up on the latest and greatest before hitting the sack relatively early.  Everyone was sort of pooped.

Saturday morning I thought dad might enjoy going with me to pick up the stuff I needed to install an auxiliary gate where I cut the fence.  The place is called Jack & Ann’s Feed and Supply in Immokalee.  It is a run down, older than dirt place that is run by good ole Florida crackers.  Dad seems to enjoy interacting with people that march off the beaten path so this would be a great place for him.

We took my truck and initially I was concerned about getting everything into the back of it.  I needed four 8 foot corner posts, two smaller cross posts, wire and a 12 foot gate.  The bed of my truck is only 7-8 feet long max.  We put the posts in and then laid the gate on top.  After that we used a combination of bungee cords, ropes and careful driving to get the stuff back to the house.

I pulled the truck to the back and dumped the stuff on the ground.  That was all I wanted to get accomplished.  Well dad suggested that we work on getting the gate installed which I told him was not my intention.  I didn’t expect or necessarily need the help to do the project although of course it goes easier with an extra set of hands.  Well dad was into it so we dug into the project.

It seems this has been a recurring theme when dad and I get together.  We always wind up doing projects somehow. He helped me install the sprinkler system a couple years ago when he was down and when we went out to NM I helped him with various stuff as well.  He enjoys it and I guess I do too.  It’s rewarding to do some hard labor and accomplish something at the end of it.

So after deciding exactly how to situate the two H braces and 12 foot gate on the fence line best based on the location of the cut, we broke earth.  I tried to do most of the labor intensive parts of the job like the hole digging.  These 8 foot posts require a 42 inch hole.  Going down 42 inches with a post hole digger is not exactly a good time.  We worked until mid to late afternoon on the project with a break for lunch thrown in there.  Our stopping point was one H post up, with the gate attached to it.  It was the harder of the two H’s to complete so it was nice to have that part knocked out.

My step mom asked if we had any interest in seeing “Men That Stare at Goats”  the new comedy with an impressive sounding cast.  Although it wasn’t a movie that was on my must see list we figured it would be fun to go check out.  We stopped and had a quick but nice meal at Moe’s which we got to enjoy out on a deck in the warm evening air overlooking a lake with lighted fountains, it was very cool.

We went to Coconut Point once again, counting on it being relatively empty.  The theater was actually the fullest it ever has been for any of our visits but there were still tons of empty seats.  The stuff they show leading up to the actual film is downright annoying, at times I almost felt like I was watching a NFL broadcast with advertisements repeating several times in a short period of time.  Then during the incredibly long preview session I had something happen that never did before.  They showed the same movie preview TWICE.  Not back to back mind you like it was a mistake or something it seemed intentional.  Man I found that incredibly annoying.  After dropping nearly $10 a head to view a movie I think it is bullshit to subject viewers to 15 minutes of previews and commercials.

So the movie starts and right away you were hit up with several laugh out loud funny moments.  The chemistry between George Clooney and Ewan McGregor was good.  However as the film progressed the funny moments became increasingly scarce. By the end of the movie it was hard to not come out of it scratching your head if you tried to explain what exactly it was about. It could best be summarized as “stupid”.   I certainly would not recommend going to a theater to see it.  B- at best.  Everyone pretty much echoed my feelings although Ali actually seemed to like it the most of all of us.

On Sunday morning I was outside before 7:30 working on the rest of the gate install.  I wanted to get it knocked out.  Dad once again felt obligated to come out and assist, this time still wearing his pajama pants.  We ran into a few snags finishing up the project, the most annoying was trying to get the rear end of the truck into a position where I could winch the fence tight.  I had everything finished and put away by 10 am, talk about a productive start to the day.  We now have a nice 12 foot gate that should make entrance to the back of the property more feasible if a large object/vehicle needs to gain access. I’ll take some pictures later of the completed project.  The tendons and muscles in my hands are very stiff and sore from all of that gripping, twisting and pulling that comes with any fence installation project.

I had seen that this weekend they were holding the Fort Myers Sandsculpting Festival.  This has been going on for nearly 25 years yet we never checked it out.  I asked my dad and step mom if they were into it and they were. On the way to the beach we drove by the Delorean place again and this time I stopped.  They had almost a dozen Deloreans lined up outside.  Every single one of them was in need of some sort of TLC, I’m not quite sure what the function of this location is.  Perhaps they restore them and resell them to collectors?  Regardless it was quite cool to be in the immediate proximity of a dozen Deloreans, something that very few people in this world can lay claim to.  My dad said he actually rented a Delorean years ago, that would have been pretty cool.

So we continued on our trip to FMB.  I had read that the festival attracted upwards of 100,000 visitors during the 5 days it runs so I expected crowds.  I didn’t quite expect as much of a crowd as we got though.  Luckily we found a place to park that was relatively close.  We walked down the road up to the beach and were surprised by the mini-carnival type atmosphere with lots of tents, food and nick knacks. 

We came up quickly upon some of the amateur sculptures which were smaller in scale yet impressive.  It amazes me how they can transform plain old sand and water into something that looks like it was carved out of stone.  We then came to the professional sculptures.  In order to get to this area you had to pay $5 a head.  This pay-to-see concept immediately soured dad on the idea so he stayed outside the fence but myself, Ali and my step mom decided the 5 spot was worth it and it definitely was.  The scultures were simply amazing.  I would love to know how they manage to do this.  Every single piece was incredible, the detail and creativity was awesome.

Many of the professional sand sculptors were from around the country, some in areas you would not think would be conducive to their craft like Montana or Missouri.  The most annoying thing was there were a ton of people mulling around the sculptures.  You couldn’t really stand long to admire anything without getting caught up in the flow of people or being in the way of someone taking a picture.

After seeing everything there was to be seen we grabbed some ice cream and then walked up along the water line until we got back to the van.  I decided it would be more interesting to continue north through Ft Myers Beach so my dad and step mom could see some different sights on the way back.  In retrospect it was a really, really, bad move.  Fort Myers beach has one two lane road to get on and off the beach.  Well this can create very long lines of traffic.  Well the amount of people leaving the festival trying to get north created the longest back up I had ever seen.  In total I bet we spent nearly an hour just getting off the beach, it was pretty miserable as we sat there watching people walking on the sidewalk making better progress.  I apologized for the long delay, I’ll never make the suggestion to take that scenic route again.

Last night Ali made an awesome dinner with fresh salad, baked ziti and homemade banana/chocolate chip muffins.  It was AWESOME.  I made it to the third quarter of the Eagles game before I fell asleep with the Birds leading 13-10. I woke up this morning to see that they choked and lost the game 20-16.  I had a feeling it would end badly based on what I had saw before passing out.  Oh well whatever, I am trying to not get that bent out of shape over it. 

Let me just say that Donovan McNabb and the Eagles in general have on of THE worst track records at clock management and last minute come backs of any team in the NFL.  Sure the Eagles have won a lot of ballgames but they hardly ever are able to do if they are down late.  How many two minute drives at the end of a game do you remember this team pulling out?  The only one I can recall is the 4th and 26 game against the Packers in the playoffs a few years back.  If the pressure is turned up to high and the clock is winding down you can almost guarantee this team will fail every single time.

We have had a great time watching the dogs interact over the weekend.  They just have so much fun playing with each other.  Watching their personalities mesh is intriguing.  Sadie turns out to be the most aggressive of all of them.  If another dog has a toy she instinctively wants to steal it.  She also is the one that is least likely to back down in a confrontation.

Maggie wants to do nothing but fetch ________ (fill in the blank) all day long.  If you can throw it she will get it and bring it back for you to throw again until your arm falls off.  Clara is a little trouble maker and personality wise is similar to Sadie, very high energy and very active.  Nicki is the cautious participant, picking her spots when she wants to participate in the roughhousing yet enjoying it when she does.  However if push comes to shove she is still the queen if another dog would try to do something like move in on her food bowl.  She will instantly flip the switch into Cujo if provoked enough.

By the end of the day yesterday I was feeling pretty spent both physically and mentally.  I just had used up my allotment of energy for the weekend and was running on fumes.

Spook is continuing to slide downhill.  She still is basically not eating.  I hand fed her this morning and witnessed the problems up close and personal.  Basically she can not work her mouth correctly.  It’s almost how I feel if I get my mouth shot up with novocaine.  It’s an incredible struggle for her to chew and swallow, the food just drops out of her mouth. It has to be a horrible thing to be starving yet unable to do much about it.  I am pretty much giving it this week to see if there is any improvement after a week of meds. If not I think we need to put her down.  The only small improvement I have seen thus far is less of the sneezing fits.

The ironic thing is besides having an f’d up mouth, a head that is permanently cocked to the left, one pupil that is larger than the other, looking like an anorexic and hair that is falling out the cat seems content.  She seems to be purring almost all of the time and is constantly looking for human interaction.  My step mom held her for awhile last night just petting her.  She loves cats and feels very bad for poor old Spook.