Festiva farce?, late night in the yard, meet Thina

So yesterday I get an envelope from the Festiva group, the outfit that bought out our timeshare.  The same place I got the long, aggravating sales call from a week or so ago.  You may recall that during that call I was told that if I don’t convert over from RCI to the new Festiva points plan for the low, low bargain price of $5500 I will wind up getting hammered with considerably higher maintenance fees.  The guy on the phone told me this was absolutely going to happen and I told him if it did I would absolutely bail on the timeshare altogether.

So anyway, I opened this letter, fully expecting my blood pressure to start edging up, assuming the letter was the written confirmation of what the sales guy told me was coming.

I read through the letter.  It outlined some further improvements that they have done to the property as well as announcing they are changing the name of the resort from Celebration World Resort to Fesitiva Orlando Resort.  So I reach the end of the letter and there is no mention of changes to the ownership plan or migration to the Festiva points plan.  I looked in the envelope to make sure there wasn’t another piece of paper in there, nothing.

Hmmm so now I wonder if the sales dude was using a “sky is falling” technique to try to bamboozle me into dropping $5500 that I don’t need to.  So for now, status quo will be the plan.

I was glad to see the replacement Tacoma interior door handle showed up last night so I can stop pulling a McGyver to get out of the vehicle.  Yea the interior of my truck is brown and the replacement handle is gray, who cares?  At least it works.

Last night I wanted to get the grass mowing out of the way.  Before I started I went to the orchard to grab some apples, I knew I had a few that should be close to ripe.   I was bummed when the largest apple I ever recall coming off the tree was already starting to go bad.  It’s always a fine line on how long I can actually leave the fruit on the tree before the fcking bugs/birds destroy it.

The grass was very shaggy after 10 days of not mowing backed up by 4 days of off and on rain.  After the tractor part of the work was complete I pulled out the weed whacker.

Shortly after I started whacking I was joined by my across the street canine friend, Thina. (theena)  I later found out that is her actual name.

I turned off the whacker so she could approach.  She came right over belly crawl style and assumed the now familiar rub my belly position.  I looked over at her place and saw the front gate was closed.  I wondered how she got out.  Well by this time light was getting hard to come by.  After giving her a dog bone and some water I fired the whacker back up and continued, figuring she could just hang out till I was done and then I would take her back over.

Well that is exactly what she did.  She would wander around a bit and then come back to me and follow me around.  She appeared to think the weed whacker was a toy,  several times I had to stop her from jumping in at it while it was running.

By the time I got finished it was literally pitch dark.  I walked back across the street with Thina by my side and opened up their gate.  I called Thina over to me, rubbed her belly and then told her to stay as I closed the gate, which she did.

So as I am wrapping the chain back around the gate I don’t see the dog.  All of a sudden I see her by my side again with a big dog smile on her face.  Great, evidently she has discovered that there are alternative exit points in the shrub border that surrounds the house.

I looked at the shrubs and saw one hole that appeared to be already blocked by an old rusty bicycle.  I saw another hole next to it.  I found an old board and wedged it across the hole, hoping that would be enough to block her.

I opened the gate back up, put Thina inside and closed it.  Once again Thina quickly escaped through yet another hole.  Argh.

Ok so now I once again open the gate, walk up to the door and ring the doorbell.  The man comes to the door looking confused as I was knelt down petting Thina.  I told him she got out again and that she got out through the shrubs.  He says “ok” but I don’t think he really understood me.

When he came out Thina started walking around the yard.  Obviously she didn’t want to get put in her garage dog house. A couple of the kids came out to try to help corral her, one of which actually spoke good english.  He was the one that told me the dogs name was actually Thina and not Nina.  I told him as well about the holes in the shrubs that the dog now uses to escape.  He said he was the one who put the bike in the first hole.  Well at least I know I can talk to the kid the next time when I say, “if this keeps happening I am going to have to call animal services.” Poor dog.

I have had multiple people on FB say I should just keep the dog like it is a simple solution.  Well first off, I am not looking to add a dog to my life at this moment, second, it isn’t like the dog is some stray.  I think her owners might notice when Thina is playing in the backyard across the street.

I just want the dog to be safe.  I really hate the dog is in a home where she isn’t valued.