Buddy's day out.

I recently started a new job in Salt Lake at the airport. Everyone who knows me knows I love to drive so the commute is something I look forward to. The only problem is I work 10 hour days so sometimes it doesn't make sense to come home every night. Lucky for me I have a very good friend who watches my house two days a week so I can stay in the SLC. She gets paid to watch my animals and sleep over.

Last week she had a feeling she should check in on my house before she went to a movie that would get her home after midnight. She quickly came over to the house and Buddy greeted her in the carport. Apparently, while I was gone, someone opened the gate and didn't close it behind them and Buddy spent the day free range. According to my friend he was so happy and looked like he had had the best day ever.

The next day I got home and this lil dog stunk sooooo bad. He smelled like poop and dog, both undesirable smells and I kind of put off giving him a bath, well that is until I found two dirty diapers in the front yard...licked clean. I am sure on his trip around the neighborhood he found these two landmines and brought them home. He immediately got a bath. My friend snapped this photo and it cracked me up, so here is Buddy in the midst of a bath. Enjoy.

Summer In Review

Last night I was at working lamenting the end of summer and was thinking back to what I did to enjoy this season. First, it must be said that summer is not my favorite season as I do not have a favorite season, but I have a least favorite season...fall. Anyway, I decided I want to blog about this summer and the things I did.

To kick it off I went with my family to Antelope Island State Park. It was terrible and great all at the same time. A bird pooped on the windshield of my car, not such a big deal until you realize I saw this poop coming toward my car and the top was down. I was waiting in line to pay to enter the park and I screamed. LOUDLY. People started, the poop splattered on the windshield, I felt stupid. At this same point I saw a sign warning people about the biting gnats. "Whatever I can handle some bugs." I thought. Nope, these bugs were relentless. They bit any and every part of exposed skin. They got trapped in your hair and tried to bite their way to freedom. They went in your ears, your eyes and if you tried to breathe they went in your nose and mouth. Natalie and I took refuge in Stephanie's van while the other brave souls hiked to find a geocache. I got sunburned, gave my nephews rides in my car and got in trouble for ringing a bell too loudly and too often. It was a fun time.

For the Fourth of July my friend, her mother and I took a trip to Mount Rushmore. We flew into Rapid City, got a rental car and spent four days terrorizing the Mid-West. The point of the trip was to see fireworks launched off the monument but due to a beetle infestation the show was canceled, we were all bummed but had a great time anyway. We stayed in a cabin at the Flintstone Village, we toured a cabin built on a "mystery spot" which was really a cabin built on the side of a very steep hill so your bearings were thrown off causing cool optical illusions...and sea sickness. We did a ton of other trashy-cool stuff like went to Sturgis, a donkey with a hump fell in love with me, I stole some crap left on "Wild Bill Hickock's" grave, we got a picture of a bear pooping and I learned more than I would ever want to know about motorcycles from my friends mom, who used to ride with a bike gang. It was great.

Next up was the Eddington Family Reunion. Due to my work/school and more work schedule this was the first time in YEARS I have been able to attend the entire reunion, and I am glad I did. It was a very fun drive, about 3 hours from Logan, and it gave me a lot of time to think and listen to music way to loudly. There were canoe rides, hikes, and swings to play on; and play on them I did. I relearned and played *a very fun card game that has a very difficult name that I have tried to spell 10 different times but have failed so miserably spell check can't even figure out what I am trying to type* This is such a fun reunion and I look forward to seeing my cousins and aunts and uncles each year. I am already looking forward to next year...although I am still unsure about the mice that roamed the lodge. It just doesn't seem safe.

The next trip was to Yellowstone. This trip is another annual trip I take each year; the first being with the friends I went to S. Dakota with, and this one. This trip is with Shawnee and Ryan. This was our fifth year. Year one was Moab, years two and three were Zion National Park, and years four and five have been to Yellowstone. This trip is always a blast. This year we stayed near in the south end of the park since we wanted to see the Tetons as well. Shawnee likes to ride bikes and hike. I like to complain about it. Ryan likes to document it. There are many many many pictures to prove this. We rented a pontoon boat and cruised around Jackson Lake while I worked on my golden red sunburn. Shawnee dragged us on a very lengthy bike ride where I hit 40mph on my bike...which is freaking fast on a mtn. bike. We hiked to the top of Mt. Washburn and had an amazing view of Yellowstone (even if I did make us hike up the wrong trail and we missed all the wild flowers). We then watched Old Faithful erupt and had dinner at the Snow Lodge. I love this trip for several reasons but the biggest one is the company. Shawnee and I do a good job keeping in touch, Ryan and I struggle. I have see Ryan maybe 3-5 times a year, and yet when we go on this trip it's like we haven't missed a thing, we have a great time.

After Yellowstone was Lava Hot Springs. This trip had a lot of potential going for it. It was to include camping, cooking out, floating a river and a waterslide...all of these activities were canceled for a freak hurricane. Well, it was more of a microburst that dumped probably 3 inches of water on the campground. The fire was smokey because it was wet. The campground really did have 1-3 inches of standing water and it was to cold to float the river or go to the pool. We did go to the hot springs, which was pretty neat but ended up staying at a bed and breakfast. The company was so great though, and we played Phase 10 for a few hours so that made up for any cold and wetness that we endured. The next morning we drove through Soda Springs to Bear Lake and got raspberry shakes and waded out into Bear Lake. It was shockingly cold...I screamed, then complained, then screamed some more, then went under water so I could say I played in Bear Lake then made a mad dash for the beach. It was a great time.

I think that is all of my trips...but I did do a bunch of other really cool things; Raging Waters, Seven Peaks, Saturday's Voyeur, drove from Emmigration Canyon to Morgan, Bee's game, a Chelsea Handler show, met a ton of new friends and had a lot of really fun nights swimming in pools and eating at great new restaurants. It's been a pretty great summer and looking back on it I'm not sure how I managed to work at all.

So that is a very long post that covers where I have been for the past 3-4 months. I have pictures but am to lazy to post them, they are available upon request. Now that the colors are changing I will prepare for some seasonal depression and 8 long months of winter.

Home

In the fall of 2004 I decided I needed a house. I don't know why. A 23 year-old has no business, no business, owning a house, but I wanted one.

I found a house I just loved. It was a white three bedroom farm house just down the street from where I was renting. It had a big lot, fruit trees, a shed and was totally remodeled...I just knew that was my new house. I called the agent selling the house and made an appointment to go look at it. For some reason, that I have forgotten, he talked me out of it and the hunt went on. I ended up ditching that agent before too long, he kept trying to sell me houses out in the country even though I wanted to live in Logan.

Three months later I called a realtor named Jette Youngblood; I remember her as a customer at the dry cleaners. She reminded me of my oldest sister Laurel. She dressed impeccably, everything she owned was dry clean only, she drove the cleanest car, and always looked like she was on her way to the most important meeting ever. The other reason I remembered her was she was funny, funny, funny, just like Laurel. When I called her she wasn't taking new business and she referred me to an agent in her company, Holli. Holli was just like Jette, only with an awesome smokers voice. I still can hear each voicemail she left me "Hey Jeff, it's Holli," read that in the most gravelly voice you can. She drove a, then new, Chrysler 300. In 2004 that was the car to have and we got stares everywhere we went. It was black outside, black leather inside and had big chrome rims. We looked at probably 20 houses, but I kept coming back to two.

The first was a little farm house on the west side of Logan and the other was a little red brick house on the Logan River. The farm house was nicer, had a real garage and needed less work. The little red house had character, which Holli reminded me means it needs work, but it was so different.

The red brick house was tucked back in the trees and had a yard that suffered from years of neglect. The inside was stuck in 1961, 1988, and 1999 it was schizophrenic time warp. Horrible wood paneling painted beige, rose colored carpets and had a pink-brown-powder blue bathroom that was straight out of 1961. I lived about three blocks from this house and would run by it everyday just to peek in the windows, I wanted to be in this house all the time. I would climb over the railing to the deck and look in the big picture windows that over looked the river. I would walk through the trashy front yard to look in the new french doors...this house was terrible, just terrible, but I could see the potential in it, and it sounds crazy but it felt like home before it was mine.

Months passed and after eight offers and counter offers the house was mine. My first house and I was 23. Again, a 23 year-old has no business owning a house, but I did, and it was, and has been, a source of pride all these years.

I started out filling it with people, people I loved. Mikey, Brad, John, Kamille, Joey, Robert, "Sauerkraut," Katie Jo, and Cameron have all called this house home at one time or another. I have fond memories of playing in the river, building "bedrooms" in the basement, late night movies, playing games with friends, talking until the sun came up, eating dinner on the deck and just enjoying every minute of life that this house provided.

I still remember the first day I moved in, I was lying on a mattress on my bedroom floor and opened the windows to hear the sound of the river. I stared at the ceiling fan above me for hours just taking it all in. It was so peaceful, so scary and so exciting.

Moving was easy, I had almost nothing. I moved from my apartment in my Ford Focus. I had a mattress, a dining room table and chairs and one leather chair in the living room. No decorations, no furniture, no household appliances, no tools to work in the yard with...nothing. Slowly I accumulated things...a friend had an old water bed, a friend had an old living room set, a friend had an old couch...my little house was coming together. My mom and sisters came over to give me tips on how to decorate the house, we picked out paint, decor and other items for this sad little home and slowly it started to take shape.

I was determined to have a yard for Buddy...so I planted grass by seed, built a nice wood fence, planted all kind of flowers: day lilies, hostas, primrose, pansies, pin cushion, coreopsis, petunias, columbine, Asiatic lilies, daisies, ornamental iris's, and about 20 other varieties of flowers. This little yard really took off. I moved load after load of dirt to level the gardens, I used brick to make a border for the new terraced flower garden, I even tied a rope to the back of the Focus to pull a fence upright...and don't get me started on the trees...oh the trees. Load after load after load of branches were taken to the dump...I shut off the power to half of the Island when I cut a tree down and it landed on the power lines and blew one of the main transformers.

Oh, and there have been floods! A foster dog flooded the basement by eating a water line to the toilet, a careless roommate over-filled the clothes washer flooding the basement, a roommate tried to "fix" the sink flooding the kitchen, and I flooded the basement "bedroom" when a carpet cleaner I rented decided to explode.

My home hasn't only been for humans, I have always had an open door policy for animals too. Buddy and Whitey love this house. They have a yard to play in, a doggie door to let them in and out whenever they want and tons of friends to keep them company. Whitey has a river he can play in and recently has gotten brave and started to run across the bridge to play on the other side. Whitey sleeps in the neighbors big willow trees and on their carport. Buddy runs and runs and runs all day trying to catch the Magpies that steal his poop. I have raised chickens in the bathroom, ducks in the back yard, have had fish, finches and three foster dogs (Ellie, Snoop and Beavis.) My old roommate John came with two cats Oreo and Tinkerbell.

I filled the carport with cars and toys. A Ford Focus, a Ford Mustang, a Mitsubishi Montero, a 1971 Mercury Monterey, a Chevy Blazer, a Mazda Miata, one motorcycle, one four wheeler and two jet skiis...and these are only the cars and toys I have owned.

I have laughed, cried, made life changing decisions, made life changing mistakes, and become the adult I am today in this house...and it's officially for sale.

My heart is breaking each time I meet with my realtor. She is nice, and she is doing her job well, but how can I put a price on this house? How can I leave just when it's getting good? No one else will know how to open Buddy's treat drawer just right so it wont squeak. No one will be able to skip that one squeaky spot in the hall so they wont wake up their roommates like I can. No one will ever make as fond memories as I have in this house.

Oh, I am so sad. My sweet little yard with my personal spot on the river will belong to someone else. I just hope who ever buys my little spot will know how much this house meant to one boy, one boy who may never forgive himself for giving it up.

My Home

Big 'ol Stain, Empty Dog Dish

I generally don't leave Buddy alone for too long, if I am camping or staying over at my parents house Buddy comes along. I don't worry about Whitey though, I think he likes when I am gone, I picture him walking around in his underwear, eating cookies till 4 in the morning talking crap to the neighbor cats about how I never let him do anything fun. Anyway, over the Fourth of July I went to Mt. Rushmore for five days, and since I had to leave Buddy I called my co-workers son to come watch the house for me. Her son stayed at my house while I was in Oregon to see Scott and Traci for Thanksgiving, this kid does a good job. He plays with my animals, eats my food, sleeps in my bed and makes $20 bucks a night...I am just now realizing I have to PAY people to live my life...hmmmmmmm. Well when I got home I noticed a new stain in the carpet.

Some people, who have seen my carpet in person, might wonder how I would even notice a new stain on my pink carpet, circa 1987, but it was HUGE. MASSIVE. GIGANTIC. It was by Buddy's, now empty, water dish so I assumed he tipped it over and it was dirt from the pad. So I shampooed the carpet, refilled his water and thought all was taken care of. A few days later...big ol stain was back and there is his empty dog dish. I shampooed, scrubbed, and refilled the water. This whole routine repeated itself over and over and over...I gave up. Big ol stain, empty dog dish was the new normal. Keep in mind this isn't your ordinary water dish either. It holds 1 gallon of water in a container that sits over a long tray. When Buddy or Whitey starts to drink the 1 gallon container fills up the tray, I generally refill it once a week, tops.

I finally decided the 1 gallon container had a crack in it...duh, the water was leaking out, overfilling the tray which explains, big ol stain, empty dog dish. I threw out the 1 gallon container and was now using only the tray for the water dish. All was going well until, again...big ol stain, empty dog dish! WHAT.IS.GOING.ON! It was like some kind of cruel joke...it was like the movie Groundhog day, except not. So I fill the tray with water, lift it above my head, and guess what? It doesn't leak, so what is happening? Why is a dish that has no leaks, isn't overturned, and hasn't moved an inch spilling water all over my house!?! Seriously...guess? It was MADDENING.

Monday I had a realtor come over and do a pre-listing inspection, all went well. We went room by room to go over what needs to be done before listing, took measurements, talked about comparables, all that stuff. I was telling my agent about the big ol stain, I said "It's just water, it does clean up, so the carpet will be clean, but everyday I refill the dogs tray, and everyday the carpet ends up soaked and I don't want to move the water dish because I don't know what is going on and I don't want two big ol stains." We move the meeting to the living room and Buddy went running into the kitchen, I glanced back to see what he was doing...he was lying in his water tray like a little doggie hot tub. He literally straddled the tray and rested his stomach on the bottom of the water dish and just sat there staring at me like I was the idiot, while all the water splashed onto the floor. Even the cat didn't seem to think what he was doing was insane. So today I bought him a kiddie pool, hommie is hot right? Just a lil dog cooling himself off in 100 degree temperatures, right?

I filled up the pool and showed him how to get in; yes, I climbed in and sat down to show him it wasn't scary. Well he thought I was going to give him a bath and went running in the house with his tail between his legs. So I got out of the pool and went in after him. Guess where I found him? In his doggie hot tub glaring at me.

If you need me I'll be floating in my new kiddie pool.

Buddy Day!

I just realized today is a very special day, it is the day I got Buddy. So for those who have been under a rock, here is the story.

Six years ago I was working at a dry cleaner in Logan. One of my favorite coworkers was telling me about her older brother. He had a hard life and was going back to jail in a few days. He had been arrested for some drug charges and was going in for sentencing. During this conversation I found out he had a little dog, and my coworker didn't know what he was going to do with it, she assumed he was going to dump him off in the Layton Hills Mall parking lot, or kill him. I was appalled that anyone would dump their dog off in a parking lot or kill it because they were going to jail. I told my coworker I would go pick the dog up and find him a home. I had no idea what I was in for...

I drove to Syracuse in the evening and found his house, well it wasn't really a house it was more like a shed that had been added onto a few times. I am not sure there was running water to the "house" but they did have electricity because I could hear American Idol playing inside. I walked through a field buried in snow and knocked on what I assumed was the front door, I heard a dog barking so I was a little more confidant I had found the right place. A few minutes later a dirty, spaced out and high old man answered the door. I asked if he was "Bob" and he said yes, I told him his sister "Jane" had sent me to pick up a dog and was I going to find him a good home. "Bob" was not a very friendly man and told me to wait in the "house" next door. Apparently "Bob's" side of the duplex-shed didn't have electricity, but next door was where "Bob" and his friend watched American Idol and did drugs. So I went to the other door of the shed and told that guy why I was there, it was at this time I noticed that not only was "Bob" high, but his friend was getting high at that point; I don't even know what kinds of drugs they were, but I am assuming by the needles it was meth? Anyway as I am standing there super scared and uncomfortable "Bob" comes in the door carrying this little half hairless, half dog crap encrusted little animal, honestly he barely resembled a dog. "Bob" called him Yazi.

"Bob" told me all about this dog and how he is wild and is hyper all day long and he is not potty trained and bites people, and is a terrible animal. I didn't know if I really wanted a flea infested biting dog, but I knew the dog needed a better life than this, so I told "Bob" I still wanted to take him home. As "Bob" handed me the dog he suddenly had a change of heart, he now wanted to sell me the dog. I told "Bob" I had no money on me, which I am not sure was a lie or not. I told "Bob" I wanted to hold the dog...then took off and ran to my car. I popped the truck with my keyless entry, threw the dog in the trunk and started my car. The tires on my car were spinning in the deep snow and I was getting stuck. I just kept spinning and sinking in the snow, then suddenly I got traction and flew through the field to the main highway, with "Bob" screaming obscenities and chasing me. He chased me to the street and was throwing stuff at my car the whole way. As soon as I got on the road I called my mom, I didn't know what else to do. I was only about 15 minutes from her house, she told me to come by and she would look at the dog and see if he was, in fact, sick.

When I got to my moms house I popped the truck (I stopped about a mile from "Bob's" house and put the dog in a kennel I brought from home) my mom took one look at the dog and said "you need to take him to a vet, he is really sick. Don't let him out of the kennel he might get your cats sick too." I drove home freaking out about this mean, dirty, sick dog. I called my boss at the dry cleaner and told him what my mom said and he agreed to let me leave the dog in the kennel at work overnight so my cats wouldn't get sick.

In the morning I called the vet and told them about the dog and they told me to bring him in first thing. The dog had bladder stones, feces in his ear and in his eyes, a skin bacteria condition which is why his hair was falling out, a rash, and a few other conditions as well. He was also malnourished and very dehydrated. After the vets office I put him in my car, and took him home with the intentions of finding him a home. From the minute he got out of the vet's office he loved me, and only me. He followed me everywhere, he would not leave my side for a second, and when we were apart he would whimper until we were reunited. He was my little buddy, and after a few days of trying to get him to respond to other names, Buddy was what I ended up calling him. I gave a half hearted effort in finding him a different home; we bonded so fast I knew there was no way I could give him up.

We had a rough start, he needed to learn a lot of things, starting with potty training, not chewing, barking, and biting people; but he learned it all pretty quickly and is now the best dog. He can do all sorts of tricks, knows sooooo many commands, and is very well behaved.....now. It was a tough battle for the first year but Buddy is such a good little dog, and I am so glad that I was able to find him and help him.

That's all...HAPPY BUDDY DAY!