Wednesday - Morning

I meant to post yesterday or even Monday after the day was done but something got in my way, sort of demanded my attention constantly. That something is the new Great Dane dog.  His name is currently Obito.  It's a Japanese name with a cool meaning, but I have never liked dog names that are long than 2 syllables.  I feel like dog names should be short and sweet so that when you need to call them, it's a voice command that comes out quickly. It's also just a strange name, at least to me.  I haven't decided yet.

Anyway, I drove the 170 miles straight through to Hubbard, Texas where we met up at a Cefco gas station.  I arrived 20 minutes before she did - she actually saved me 89 miles of driving each way, I was thankful for that. She being the lady that had to part with her beloved doggy.  Getting divorced, the man took off to Kansas leaving the dogs, kids, home and her in the dust.  That's pretty lame from my point of view, but I don't have the whole story, so I'll just have to leave my judgments alone on that one.

It took all of maybe 2 minutes to figure out that that long drive was absolutely worth it.  The dog took to me instantly.  She told his story: Housebroken (yes, so far we haven't had any accidents at all), kennel trained (haven't tried that yet but she did give me his kennel, unless there are issues I doubt I will use it), trained in basic obedience commands - very well in fact: sit, down, come, stay.  I was impressed with the stay command, as much as you can tell he wants to come running to you, if you tell him to stay, he's not moving.

He's a European Dane, they have a different facial appearance than their American counter parts.  If you are interested, just do an image search of both kinds of Danes and you will see what I am talking about. He's skinny, which is typical of a 2 year old Dane whose body has outgrown it's ability to keep up with the pace, they grow fast.  He will start filling out in the next year.  Filling out as in lots of muscle and just looking like a mature Great Dane.  The lady obviously took great care of the dog and gave me all of his comfort cuddle toys and other things that make him feel secure.  It was obviously not her first desire to get rid of the dog and I truly felt for her.  

I filled up at the Cefco, this trip also had another purpose such as the trip I made a while back to get a travel trailer that was 122 miles away: see how I do driving. In the mindset of a trucker, I just drove straight through without stopping coming back as I had done going done.  345 miles round trip with probably a 40 minute stop. 

The dog was understandably distressed.  I just took him from his mama.  I separated him from his pack.  He was up and down and up and down, but he kept coming to my side after we came home.  He was up and down all night long, waking me up numerous times, but again, I understood why so I was patient with him.  Day 2, I took him to the property.  I was going to walk him around the woods on the leash.  I didn't want to let him run free, even tho she said they let him off the leash whenever they were in a place where they could do so.  I let him out of the back of the SUV - he jumps in and out easily with no hesitation - and he took off running with the leash on him.  I just thought, ok, I  guess we get to test it.  

So I let him get far enough away before I called him back and he came running right back.  I took the leash off and kept doing it for a while before I was comfortable with the idea that this dog isn't going anywhere.  Which is impressive considering I had been his new owner for less than 24 hours.  Not impressive on my part, I had nothing to do with his training, impressive on his part that he had been trained on so many things, I give the lady credit for going to the trouble of teaching the dog the basic things all dogs should know.  

I haven't really tried to walk him on a leash yet since it was the property I took him to.   The lady said he loves getting into water.  I'll have to find a lake where I am allowed to let him off the leash and see what happens.  Nothing like a Dane swimming through the water lol.  

So it's still early, he was getting up and down, I figured he needed to go out and do his duty.  We started working on leaving him in my room and outside yesterday.  He starts to whine and make a lot of noise and I need that corrected before I leave for Oregon.  That's only 12 days away but at the rate we're going, it shouldn't be a huge issue.  They feed him a brand of dog food I had never heard of before, Rachel Ray's.  It is actually a bit cheaper than the Iams I was feeding Addler.  I don't have any of that food, of course, but I still have Iams left so he is happily chomping that down.  

The dog is adapting quickly, that's about it for that for now. I forgot to say that the dog was free, including everything she gave me for him.  I did offer money, just because the dog is Champion blood lines and all the stuff she was giving me.  She refused.  She said that she had had quite a lot of people contacting her about it after running ads but none of them had Dane experience.  It's probably a breed thing for lots of dogs, but Dane owners typically want another Dane owner in the case of transferring ownership of a dog.  It's mostly their size.  One person had contacted her and she said they asked if there is anything they need to know about having a Great Dane?  She just said no thank you, lol.  This is my 6th Dane. I am easing the dog into my way of doing things.  

This giant electric bill is due on the 11th.  I've collected quite a lot of money but some of it isn't showing yet.  That's a good thing because otherwise, I'm a bit screwed.  I have a couple of payments due before then as well.  It's just that I've got less than what I added up the other day for receipts.  But, there is a payment coming through cashapp that didn't post yet and some payments coming through the credit card processing that also haven't shown up, thankfully.  

I need to get a couple more lots rented out.  I may do a Facebook ad boost which targets potential renters.  

I woke up with a seriously itching foot.  I looked at it, covered with insect bite bumps.  Like 30 of them.  I must have stepped into something on the walk yesterday.  I keep forgetting to put on OFF to keep bugs from getting onto my flesh and biting me all over.  It is pretty unpleasant when they get all over your body. At least it was contained to one sock on one foot.  You could tell, the bumps end where the sock ended up my leg, lol. 

For some reason, the trash company tried to collect $100 more than owed last week.  I was going to call them but just didn't get to it. The auto-pay declined it for being over what the agreed amount was.  Well, the auto pay came through again, this time the agreed upon amount.  It's something I'd like to switch to another company, this company is high priced. Other companies in the region don't service our area saying there isn't enough business. A group of us came together on the local gossip page to get enough people to get them to start service but so far, they won't do it.  

We have Biden pushing for mask mandates again - no thank you. Aren't Americans tired of the government pushing us all around yet? Shutting down business, making kids stay at home, trashing our economy, surely we learned from the last round of this that masks and stay-at-home mandates not only don't work, but do significant damage to our society?  Real experts saying that Covid is here to stay and that masks will not stop the spread of it. Of course they won't, did they the last time? 

There. Ordered 40 pounds of his food, which is $10 per bag cheaper than Iams.  I'll take the savings and keep the dog on his regular diet.  If the food gives him problems down the road, I'll switch him over to Iams, I just balk at the idea of Iams raising the price of their dog food so much  in such a short period of time. Sorry folks, it's dog food, not rib eye steak.  

And for today? Well, I dunno yet.  I need to do some mowing, keep people happy.  I'm not doing that trenching until it rains enough to soften up the soil quite a lot. Even if the machine can trench in hard soil, it will take so much longer than necessary.  I've got until the end of next week to get it done before I fly off to Oregon.  Time is not on my side, but the trenching part of it with the machine won't take but a  couple of hours? I'm not sure, really.  I did the last trench with a mini-ex and that was pretty easy. But that machine costs a lot more to rent per day.  

So I guess I'll just mow some grass and then see about getting new belts for the riding mower. One of them popped off, it was old and falling apart.  There are 2 belts under there that I can see and the other one needs replaced as well.