“Remoted” – Workday 71 / Day 95 (Friday)

Another Friday vacation day, another hot day spent driving with no A/C in the car dealing with life maintenance issues, but today included the dogs. The good news is, I have an appointment to drop the car off Monday for an A/C charge.  All it took was remembering to pick up the phone and call my friendly and convenient neighborhood service station.  

The car ride today wasn’t totally horrible, but I also didn’t spend time with the A/C blasting hot air wondering when it would get cold like I did last Friday. I opened the windows and put the dog beds in the back seat on the floor a few minutes before takeoff. The beds work pretty well at confining Moose and Winston. It doesn’t guarantee that Moose won’t jump up onto the seat, put his paws on the arm rest window controls, and soon be hanging out the window. This scares me, ever since the time back in Tennessee when he was in the shopping cart at PetSmart as we crossed the parking lot to the car, and he jumped up and over the sides of the cart to get out, landing on the pavement several feet below. I still have no idea how he executed that maneuver, but I have to respect the agility and the motivation to get out of the cart. I have nightmare visions of him trying the same escape from the car as we’re traveling down a busy street, or worse, the highway. Thank goodness for the child window locks.

Winston recently had his heartworm test, but Moose needed his done so I could get a get a refill on the heartworm prevention. This was the reason for today's automobile outing. The Boys also needed flea and tick prevention, so the thirty-minute tech visit plus three months of prevention meds for the two dogs cost a tidy sum ($244, to be specific). Moose was diagnosed with heartworms in June of 2010, six months after I got him from the animal shelter, and that is nothing I ever want to deal with again. The treatment was about $1,200 and required keeping him quiet for around 10 weeks. I’ll gladly take today’s visit and expense before another hellishly stressful and expensive bout with heartworms.

While in Fitchburg (because I never changed vets when I moved to Lowell) I got to enjoy some of my favorite F-burg things. I love the gas prices, which are usually 10 to 15 cents less per gallon than the stations near my house, so I filled up on Route 12. My favorite $3 car wash is also on Rte 12 and I was able to have the heavy coating of pollen washed off. I even splurged and got the $7 car wash with the wheel cleaning, because after dumping all the money at the vet, the purse strings were still a little loose.

He looks like a little saint now ...

While in line at the car wash, I checked to make sure the elements of the 4/60 (four windows open at 60 mph) cooling system were secure, and set the child locks. After paying and rolling into the wet stream on the conveyor belt, things sounded a bit weird and I looked back to see that the driver side back window was open. Wide open. Water and soap were streaming onto the back seat, down the inside of the door, and all over Moose, who was now sitting in his bed on the floor acting like nothing at all unusual was happening. So much for my checking the child lock and Moose, always eager to look out the window, had managed to stand on the controls. There was some colorful language and frantic button pushing before the window was closed again, luckily, without trapping any of the cloth strips from the washer. By the time we got home 45 minutes later, the 4/60 cooling system had dried Moose and most of the seat. 

Delicious, but definitely not Korean food. 

It occurred to me much too late in the game to call my favorite local Korean restaurant (Arisu, also on Rte 12) to order kimbap and bi bim bap to bring home, so I totally missed that boat on my little journey. If I had thought of it while sitting in the parking lot at the vet waiting for Moose instead of losing at multiple attempts at Candy Crush, it would have been ready by the time I was over that way. Assuming of course, that they are even open, which I still don’t know because I neglected to check. Whatever. The day was expensive enough already, and there is plenty of food at the house. Maybe next time. Supper was a delicious gazpacho, but right now I would kill for some kimbap.