To Bark or Not To Bark

Before writing away about "To Bark or Not To Bark", I do have to clarify a couple of points:
1. Our dogs bark. We have been teaching our dogs not to bark outside now that we live in a neighborhood. When our dogs are outside and they start barking at someone they see, they sound like they are going to eat the person, we tell them to "hush" and for the most part, they hush. If they don't hush, we bring them in the house.
2. I am very defensive of our dogs. I know they aren't perfect, but one thing I don't handle very well is criticism of Pellet and/or Cali.

Okay, now we can start.

Today as I was leaving work, I was talking to Norm and he told me that one of our next door neighbors told him this morning that "the dogs barking is a big problem" and that "they bark too early in the morning" [they aren't out before 7am] and her bedroom is right on the corner where they bark. So Norm apologized.

Norm tells me this and I get all worked up, and in a very Fernanda-manner start spitting out: "7am is not early" and "we tell them to hush!" and "they are dogs for crying out loud" and "other dogs in the neighborhood bark". Norm tells me to just be conscious of the dogs barking for no reason [which I always do] and to not let it get to me.

The whole drive home my blood is boiling with thoughts like "what if the neighbor calls the police and we get fined and what if they end up calling the landlord and we get kicked out, then we won't have anywhere to live and we will still be responsible for this rent and our house at the lake hasn't rented, so it will be two rents plus rent wherever else we end up and we only have 10 more months in this house and after that we need to find a place with more yard and privacy, maybe I need to start looking now..." YOU GET THE POINT.

I pull in my driveway and the other neighbor (older lady from Miami - shout out to Natasha and all the lovely Miami peeps!) tells me "honey, when I'm outside and the dogs start barking at me, you don't have to bring them in the house" [the other day she was in her backyard watering flowers and Pellet and Cali saw her and barked crazy at her, so I naturally brought them in the house]. THEN, she continues "I actually prefer that they bark, because that lets me know that there is someone around and they bark loud, so they'll scare anybody away" yeah... I'm so confused right now as she continues "even when they bark in the house when they hear people outside, that's great! Let's people know not to mess with them".

So I thanked our lovely neighbor from Miami, expressed my concerns about disturbing the peace, which she told me to not worry about, and walked in my house to tend to my lovely beasts that were about to come through the window.

Pretty

Pretty cotton fields by our house (might want to click on the picture to make them big):

Things That Make You Go: Hmmmmm...

Today on my way home from work, I stopped at Wendy's (I was treating myself after my first week of my new job... okay? okay).

The interaction at the drive-thru went like this:

I order the best sandwich in the fast-food-spicy-sandwich world, with a Coke, of course.

Girl at window #1: What other drink do you want? The Coke is out.
Me: The Coke is OUT? (if you ever catch me drinking a soda, it will more than likely always be a Coca-Cola Classic).
Girl at window #1: Yeah, what other drink do you want?
Me: ................................... I don't want another drink, I'd like a discount (oh yes I did!).
Girl at window #1: ...................... a discount?!
Me: yes please, I don't want any other drink besides a Coke, so I'd like a discount.
Girl at window #1: oh, the Coke just got fixed.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

Now, why couldn't she just have said something like:
"I apologize, our Coke is out, we are replacing it, do you mind waiting, or would you like another drink?"

I don't know.

I do know that I tasted that coke before I drove off because sometimes when you get the first drink after the syrup has been changed, the coke comes out tasting funny. This one tasted fine, the Girl at window #2 had the smarts and said "I let it run before I fixed yours". I was happy.

The Fair

The other night we went to the Georgia National Fair! (which by the way I'm going to go ahead and put out there that the fairgrounds are like 15 minutes away from our house!!). We went on opening weekend, so it appears that many of the animals hadn't arrived yet - or they were somewhere we couldn't find. Yes, we did look in the big barns that said "GOATS, SWINE, SHEEP" and "CATTLE" and "HORSES". We did, however, get to see a few:

He might have been singing to the sheep...

the goats reminded us of Cali for some reason

Check out this cow's markings!!

There were rides, but we didn't get on them because we had 2 missions to accomplish. Mission #1 - scarf down as much fair food as possible. Mission #2 - not be late for Tammy Barton's hypnosis show (which was absolutely interesting and just as funny). We had to get all of that done (mainly the eating) before the storm that was rolling in hit. Which it did roll in and hit. And we did get wet. At least come storm time, we were done eating our "entrees", Pablo and Norm were eating a cinnamon roll each the size of their own face.

It is amazing to me how the food trucks (and rides too) are beautifully tacky at the fair. If you look close and take it all in these structures are beyond tacky. There is no way on earth I would eat out of these things in any other context besides the fair.

this must have been the vegetarian
 food stand

they were intensely watching
the guy with the sugar

they were watching him 

And saving the best for last... a trip to the fair is worth nothing, it's a waste of money and time UNLESS...

UNLESS IT INVOLVES FUNNEL CAKE!! 

Needless to mention we ate funnel cake. Because the polish sausages and onions, corn dogs, roasted corn, coke, and cinnamon buns the size of our faces wasn't enough food at 8:00pm.

New House, New Tricks

These dogs really do render me speechless from time to time. Today I was in the kitchen and I could hear Pellet snooping around in the guest bathroom. What did I find when went looking for him? This:

Of course it didn't take long for Cali to show up and start a party in the bathroom:

All Pellet wanted to do is relax... I guess. Regardless, he was quite happy hanging out in there. And the odd thing is that there's not even bad weather outside!

The Differences

I’m not sure to consider ourselves fortunate for having had the ability to live out in the country for almost 8 years or deprived from civilization for having spent the past almost 8 years of our lives out in the middle of nowhere.

By all means, I wouldn’t consider Byron, GA a big “city”, but it does have a whole lot more going on than Lake Oconee, GA does. Things like Target, and having the ability to not be suckered in to always shopping at Publix because it is convenient, and having options of which Mass time to attend, and cheaper gas. With this life also comes traffic and waiting in lines and (at least for us, at the moment) neighborhood living.

I went to the bank the other day and I had 2 cars in front of me at the teller (before you make the comment "you should've gone through the ATM!" I'm going to say that I had to go to the teller, couldn’t do transaction through the ATM). I must have waited in line for at least 20 minutes. Back at Lake Oconee, it was a rare occasion if I came across more than 2 cars in the whole parking lot of the bank – let alone at the teller!

As I drive around these new areas, I realize that our house is not the only one with limited backyard privacy and it’s not the only one with neighbors that chat out on the street (which drive the dogs crazy). Back at the lake, it almost felt like an invasion of privacy when people walked past our house (which sat several yards from the street) – now we feel like we are up in everyone else’s business (specially the backyard neighbors…).

I’m not sure where I’m going with this post – I guess what I’m trying to say is that every living environment is different; each living environment has its pros and cons and we should appreciate what we have at the moment. I think it will be a good thing to experience “real life” even if it’s just for a year (length of lease).