Tobie gets a twofer…

My distant neighbors T&S went visiting for the holiday, which meant I started going across the plateau and up their mesa twice a day to take care of their dogs…

…and for once – so far – there are none of the adverse conditions that so often conspire to make this an unpleasant gig. Maybe I shouldn’t list the possibilities; maybe Murphy isn’t listening. Let’s just say this has traditionally been a bad-luck gig for the Jeep.

This morning I had to hurry, though, because D&L wanted to go to town on a non-water run, which made it a perfect time to fill propane bottles. In the interest of hurrying, I brought along Tobie’s long leash so we could stop on the way back and give him his morning walkie on ground we haven’t trod a thousand times.

He seemed to enjoy it. He especially enjoyed the dead goat “somebody” dumped, which just happened to be right in our walkie path. Tobie wanted to take it home. We argued. I won.

We headed back, and just as we got in sight of the Jeep a big old Suburban happened by and stopped right next to it. This was not in the plan. I sped up. The driver got out and disappeared between the vehicles. I could think of no reason for that that wasn’t bad. I sped up more. We were still maybe three hundred yards away. I’m a one-legged guy: I can’t actually run.

Then the guy comes out from between the vehicles and starts yelling: “Hello!” I thought he saw me. He didn’t.

“Hello!” I replied.

“Where are you?”

“Over here!” I waved, and he finally saw us.

“You okay?” Apparently he couldn’t think of a reason for an abandoned Jeep on the side of the dirt road that wasn’t bad, and was just trying to be nice.

I assured him I was fine, just walking my dog – which admittedly was a strange thing to do in this strange place. Even by the Gulch’s standards we were pretty far away from anything, which was why I’d chosen that spot. Wasn’t expecting anybody else to drive by. He waved, got back in his truck and drove away.

Then it was time for one of the more painful monthly chores of the winter…

For the record, still $3.80/gallon. And this time I had to fill one of the big kitchen bottles. Winter sucks.