Head out the window and other observations

Please take me with you

Planning a weekend at the beach should invlove at least a minimum of thinking and list making.  I am a prolific list maker but I rarely use much less remember what I wrote on them.


Ususally, I am grabbing up a bunch of stuff the night before and scrambling around in the morning.  One time I ended up with a neatly folded stack of dish towels that were underneath a single t-shirt.  I had just scooped up the pile and threw it in the bag. 


My sister has a bitchen' house at the coast and I am lucky enough to be able to go there sometimes when I need a break.   She is also a dog-aholic so this means we get to bring our hounds with us.  I was pretty sure my Bomma-Lomma's first trip to the coast here would be amazing and he did not disappoint.   


So I did my usual - sat at the dining room table writing a packing list that I wasn't going to use...kong, peanut butter, dog bed, dog food, dog treats, leash....see the pattern here?  We are going to the coast....


The magic morning arrives - up at 5:15, coffee on, and the schlepping to the car begins.  Meanwhile, my boy is about to come out of his skin.  Scrambling around, jumping, paw, and overall mayhem from him.  The other 'child' is a dignified 14 year old so she just sort of ran back and forth from the dining room to the back door....somewhat confused by everything that was going on.


An uneventful drive down with both of the dogs sleeping most of the way until we let them out in Astoria.  Then it was windows down and nose out.  When we got to the beach house, I decided  to just open the car door and let him out to run around and get rid of some pent up energy.....


Let's just say that hindsight is 20/20 and I will never do that again.  He took off like a shot - straight down the trail leading over the dunes to the beach.  I am not as agile as I used to be so the sight of me 'running' after him was probably not the best.  He did come back to me a few times but not close enough for me to grab him and put his leash on.  Continuing my slow 'jog' I heard the first of many screams of "NO",....Get away......G*D D**N DOG"....I got over the last low dune and there he was happily playing with a family - well he was happy anyway...the family wasn't.  He was diving around one young man on a floaty - trying to either hop on with him or tip him over.  The mother and father were trying to grab him as he ran past them and I was screaming his name at the top of my lungs like a fish wife.  He looked my way a couple of times with a "who are you?" look - he had never seen me before, never heard my voice, nothing!


WOW - I did not know that one could feel the death ray of looks from that far away - but if looks could kill or maim, I would have dropped over.  I scrambled over and said 'sorry sorry sorry' about a million times with them standing there with arms crossed fuming.  Meanwhile, my pooch has discovered the ocean and this is all I needed. 


I have see a lot of videos of joyful dogs and wished like crazy that I had a video camera to tape him on that day.  I forgot all about the crabby people and even they warmed up and managed a smile watching him. 


So glad I took him - so much fun - he ran and ran and made friends for hours then slept like a baby all night.  Going to buy a camera for next time for sure!