Land of "Shit! It's Too Bright!"

Last Saturday (12/09) I woke up pretty early because of a hangover. Don't you hate that? Ya know, you get such a bad hangover that it knocks from the inside of your head and yells, "Hey! Wake the eff up? Get some water, some food, some aspirin." Ever experienced it? If not, I don't wanna hear about it. Nothing's worse than a healthy bastard spouting about how much he or she can drink without feeling anything the next day.

Dustin and Shelley weren't up yet, so I made coffee, drank a ton of water, nibbled on some bread, and read "A Scanner Darkly," a great book by the way, until the coffee maker was done dripping, gurgling, coughing. The smell of coffee woke both Dustin and Shelley. Goofy people. Shelley, in her I'm-happy-to-be-awake-and-alive attitude, walked out and said, "Coffee, coffee, coffee," then sang "COFFEEEEEEE!"

I grunted. Dustin walked outside to get the paper.

I felt like crap, like I said earlier, so I just sat there, reading and drinking my coffee, while Shelley worked on her crossword puzzles. She's always working on some sort of puzzle, most of which I don't understand. She's obssessive-compulsive as well as bi-polar. She takes meds, and for the most part she's one hell of a healthy individual, usually upbeat and silly. She's damned intelligent. But never ever, and I mean EVER, leave her without some sort of puzzle to work on while she's just sitting around. She can't handle it. She must have something to do no matter what; otherwise she'll panic, and it is no fun to watch her panic and shake and yell about how she can't find her puzzles. That's too bad. I sometimes like to sit and do nothing--no stereo, no TV, no book; just me and my thoughts. I find it relaxing.

Dustin made breakfast, and what a breakfast it was! Each of us had a three egg omlette with sausage, cheese, tomato, green pepper, onion, and jalepeno. And bacon on the side. Oh, it was good. And after I was done eating, my hangover was gone. I finished A Scanner Darkly (read this book!!), Shelley grew frustrated with her crossword puzzle, and Dustin read the paper until his mind was satiated with local news. We decided to take a walk.

Dustin and I had already been over most of the 40 acres, but Shelley hadn't yet. It was a moderate day, not too cold, but not exactly warm either. We took Bailey and Phoenix with us, and I think they had a better time than all of us. We may have walked a lot that morning, but the dogs ran and walked four to five times the amount we did, both Phoenix and Bailey always infront of us, acting as if we needed protection. And what was weird was that they got along great. Wherever one went, the other followed, both of them together, changing directions at the same time, sniffing the same things, ears perking at the same sounds. They really acted like a small pack. There was no posturing, no growling, no barking. They were just two dogs on the same mission: don't let anything near the two-legs.

I've already described the land, so I won't go into it again, but it is worth mentioning that Bailey and Phoenix had a great time in the creek. Both of them jumped in and ran back and forth in the water, splashing and growling playfully, and getting themselves smelly and filthy--a favorite past time of just about any dog. Phoenix has long hair, and her coat is mostly white, so she looked awful, red mud everywhere; Bailey has a black short coat, so it's difficult to tell when she's wet or when she's dirty, but she does have one small white stripe on her chest, and it was dark, a tell-tale sign of how much fun she had. But yeah, she was filthy. She brushed up against me after playing in the creek, and she left mud along my jeans. I'm sure she wanted to share that wonderul creek smell with me. We walked around for about two and half to three hours, and about an hour into I had to take off my coat and hat because my blood was flowing and it didn't matter whether it was a warm day or not. It was a good walk.

That afternoon we watched V for Vendetta, a film I have already seen four times and Dustin had seen twice, but Shelley hadn't seen it yet. I enjoyed it almost as much as watching it the first time. If you haven't seen it, you should.

We peetered around the rest of the afternoon, just doing whatever. I wandered around some outside, Dustin worked on god knows what, and Shelley spent some time in her bedroom working on puzzles. It was a bit of down time before Adrian, Darcy, and Chrissy would come over.

And come they did.