dog for sale.

I'm tempted to sell Flash. This dog has literally cost us thousands... from vet bills to home repair. The vet warned Brad when he took him in as a puppy, that Labs are accident prone, and it might be a good idea to get insurance. We thought it was a scam... turns out, maybe not.
Our A/C has been acting up for the last couple of days. At first, we thought it was just so hot that it couldn't keep up. I mean, we have a two story house with one unit. And it's been ridiculously hot lately.

But yesterday, when the thermostat inside reached 83, I realized something was not right.

Noah and I escaped to my mom's for the majority of the day, after Noah's nap. We had a good time hanging out with her and Madison. We went for a walk in a local business park, saw some geese and a deer, and ate dinner with them.

Around 9pm, it was definitely time for Noah to go to bed, so I packed us all up and headed home. Noah fell asleep during the ride, so when I got home, I went inside to check on the air before I got him out.

As soon as I opened the door; stale, hot, humid, stagnant air greeted me. I could hardly breathe. I checked the thermostat in the living room, and it was 87. NO WAY was I staying there. So I grabbed some more food for Noah, some pj's, general neccesities, and ran right back out the door and straight to my mom's.

Noah and I slept in the guest room. I'd forgotten how hard it is to sleep in the same bed as a baby... especially now that he's older and bigger. He moves more, and of course, I woke up everytime he changed positions, mainly because I was nervous he'd fall off of the bed or something... even though I had him blocked with giant pillows. So yeah. Not much sleep. But that's ok, because I'd rather get a few hours of sleep in a cool house than a few hours of sleep in a hot one.

A friend of my parents, who does A/C work, came to look at our unit. Turns out, this guy is responsible for our troubles:

Yep. He's been peeing on our outdoor unit, which as you can imagine, isn't good for it. It's completely corroded the outside stuff that protects the coils. And of course, that's screwed up the A/C. To sum up, we need a new unit. Which costs more than we can afford. Oh the joys of home ownership.

He's giving us a fair price. I've asked around already. Fortunately, I have the most amazing daddy in the world, and he's going to try and get the guy that does their heating and air to get us a unit at wholesale. They can charge it to the company, and then we can pay them back. Unfortunately, that guy is at a Jehovah's Witness convention right now, so my dad can't talk to him until Monday. But I figure that if we went through our family friend, we'd still have to wait for it till Monday anyway. We also have a neighbor behind us that sells A/C supplies as a living.... PLEASE be praying for God to bring us a good deal! And also that we'll survive the weekend without having any heat strokes or other related problems.

And to stray completely off topic...

This came flying at my head today:

All I wanted to do was check my mail.

I was at my mailbox and heard a squawking noise, but we have birds making that noise all of the time, especially if the dogs are out. I didn't pay it much attention... except that the noise kept getting closer. Before I knew it, there was a mad blue jay flying straight at my head. I screamed and ran back down the driveway.

I have a knack for pissing off birds. Back in college, I was on my way to class one morning, walking with a group of people. I made my way onto the sidewalk. College campuses love to put ponds and lakes on the property, which naturally, attracts geese and other wildlife. But mainly geese. It's annoying enough to have to watch for goose poop on the way to class (because you SO don't want to be the one in class wreaking of poop), but then you also have to share the sidewalks with the geese themselves sometimes. So I was minding my own business, when a goose comes walking towards me. I just ignored it at first, but then it started flapping its wings. It looked mean, so I moved off of the sidewalk to get out of its way.

And that was when it took off in flight... straight towards my head. Luckily, I dodged it, and some guy turned around and asked, "What'd you do to it??"

The next day, there was caution tape. It was a mommy bird with eggs nearby. Don't mess with a mommy goose. They're just mean.

And that's the image I had in my head as I was being chased down my driveway by a blue jay this morning. I will now be checking my mail in the car. Or wearing a helmet. Either way, I know I'll never be getting a bird as a pet. Not unless I have the sudden urge to be pecked to death.