Started out the same as usual. Got up around noon, waiting on my sisters to get out of bed. Carrie's mother-in-law stopped by to drop off Carrie's niece Phoebe. They woke my sisters up. Then it took us three hours to finally get everyone out of the house. Carrie, Erin, Phoebe, our two dogs, and I piled into my little car. Wal-mart, fashion bug, stopped at dad's, stopped at Erin's, stopped back at Carrie's....
Then our day finally began at 5pm...go figure. That's how it goes in this family. We picked up a pack of flashlights because it was starting to get dark, and we all still had our hearts set on hiking. We walked for miles and miles through the creepy woods, the puppies running around free and ecstatic. Sometimes the trail was very narrow, somtimes we had to cross little gaps and climb over tree limbs. There's a spot in the trail where we have to cross the small creek in the shallow area to get to the other half of the trail. We were having a blast, and someone was playing Elvis loudly. "Your the devil in disguise."
Carrie and I had taken the dogs on this trail last weekend. And just like last weekend, a thought, an image flashed through my mind that I ignored. I had a bad feeling in my gut that we would lose one of the dogs. That she'd run off into the trees and we'd never see her again. After all, Kenni was only five months old and she disappeared from our yard for two weeks. Who knew what would happen should one of them become lost in the woods and ignore our calls?
But that was silly. Why whould they just wander off? They are very well behaved. When we call them to us, they come running. So, this thought of mine was absurd.
There was an area of the trail where you could see houses and the people's backyards. That was when I noticed Billy, Carrie's dog, wasn't with us.
"Guys, where's Billy?" I asked.
"Billy!" we all start calling out for her. Usually when they wander off into the woods, we just call for them and they come running back. Sometimes it takes them a few minutes. My dog Kenni was next to us, but Billy was nowhere.
"Billy, come on, let's go!"
Still no sounds. No jinggling of her collar, no rustling of the leaves. The four of us were shouting for her, staring off into the trees, still not dark out, but the night was only about thrity minutes away. Kenni stood at our feet, grinning from ear-to-ear, her tongue hanging out. She wasn't worried at all as she also swept her eyes around, searching the trees and bushes.
"Oh, my God, guys, where's Billy?"
After shouting and getting no results, we split up. This is just not like her. She always comes when we call her. Carrie and Phoebe went ahead on the path, Erin and I retraced our steps.
"Billy! Billy Bob, come on girl, let's go!"
Not a sound other than the music coming from a local's Saturday night.
"Billy Bob!"
We met up with Carrie and Pheebs, both parties unsuccessful in our searches.
"What if she wandered into a yard where there is a dog. She wouldn't listen to us if she found a dog."
Carrie and Phoebe took the trail toward the houses, planning to roam the neighborhood. Erin, Kenni, and I continued on the trail. I tied my scarf onto Kenni's collar, just to be on the safe side. I did not need her pulling a disappearing act as well, especially with the trail so close to homes and people. That's when they have trouble listening, when others are about.
"Kenni, where's Billy?" I asked her. "Find Billy, Kenni. Go find Billy."
She tugged Erin and I along the path, going so fast we were running. We ran through the trees, on narrow, overgrown paths, up hills, twisting further and further. My heart was racing and my asthma was kicking in. The sky was growing darker and I wanted to cry. Did we lose Billy forever? Was it my fault for thinking one of the dogs would get lost?
The trail we were on was suddenly not a trail anymore. It just disappeared and we were in the woods. Erin and I decided to turn around. Trees all look alike if you have no footpath to follow. We almost made a wrong turn in our trek back, but I suddenlly saw what I think was a tiny, rusted truck canopy. Suddenly we could hear Carrie and Phoebe.
"Guys stay where you are, we're coming to you," Carrie told us. We met up on the path. Billy was still MIA.
I was almost to the point of crying and Carrie was freaking out.
"I am not leaving here without my dog!"
"We'll stay all night if we must," I told her, waving my flashlight.
We decided to head toward the car, hoping maybe Billy was near the pond. Maybe she didn't follow us any further?
We were coming around a corner a few minutes later, shouting her name.
"Billy!" Erin shouted. Sure enough, there she was around the corner. She saw us and her tail went mental. Kenni ran to her like she was chasing the geese at the park we always take them. Billy ran to us, grinning and puffing, her rolly-polly body vibrating in her excitement to see us. I gave her a little swat on her back.
"Billy you don't do that! You don't go off on your own," I told her, as if she were a child. We were all kneeling down, hugging her and petting her. She must of thought it was her birthday or something. But I think she'd been as scared as we were. She was probably wandering around in the bushes, smelling wonderful smells of dead animals and bugs, when suddenly she looks up and realizes she can't see us or hear us. She's the biggest chicken scardy-cat I know, so she must have freaked when she realized we weren't nearby. We searched for a good fifteen to twenty minutes.
The hike back to the car, we kept her in our sights the whole way. I lead the way with the puppies wandering through the trees before me. Carrie, Erin, and Phoebe lagged behind. Every couple paces Carrie would holler at me, asking if I could still see both dogs. They pulled out their flashlights. It went from a slightly darkening sky to almost black in a few minutes. We were stumbling along, flashlights lighting our way. It had definately been an adventure. And with the dogs playing in the creek and pond, they both smelled like dead fish...Wonderful.
After a stop at Barnes & Noble for dinner, we headed home.
That's when we had our second big scare.
I was driving along somewhere between 65-70 miles/hour in a 70 zone. Minding my own business in my tiny little Nissan Sentra. Suddenly a huge, eighteen-wheeler gets over behind me, on my ass, nearly hitting my bumper. Carrie starts yelling at me to speed up. He probably didn't see us? Stupid truck.
Then, for the next ten minutes, I have him following on my bumper, turning his brights on, purposely trying to blind me. We are all freaking out cause we have this huge truck practically touching my bumper with his brights on and shinning in my face. I always turn my mirrors at odd angles at night, cause I have sensitive eyes and can't stand the lights reflecting, so his brights weren't hardly in my eyes at all. But still, he was doing this on purpose, this reckless driving, just to piss us off. What was his problem? Was he drunk? Then he starts weaving in and out of traffic, so I'm thinking this bastard very well could be. So I get over in the slower lane, cause I want to get behind this bastard so I can get his license, company, and truck number. My sister's husband is an over the road trucker, she goes with him, she knows the ropes with these companies. I want this ass fired. He could kill someone with this behavior.
So, I'm now going about fourty-five, but I still can't get behind him. He was suddenly going slow, too. He didn't want us to get any info from the back of his truck. Luckily there were three people in my car keeping eyes on him, so eventually we get behind him, then beside him, two cell phones out saving info from his truck. This bastard is going down. This sort of driving is absolutely unacceptable.
The second I get home, I pull out my laptop and google the truck company, find a number, and call.
The lady didn't seem to care.
"Hello?" She says.
Umm...
"Is this Short and Sassy Trucking Company?" I ask. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is it's real name.
"Yes," she told me. She can't even answer the phones right. You state your business name when you answer the phone so people know they have the correct number.
I tell her I have a complaint to make about a driver.
"Okay," she says. Then silence.
I have never had to call and complain about a Semi before, she should have been asking questions or something, walking me through this. She didn't say anything. I have always been shy when it comes to the phone. I hate talking on them. But I am so angry at this trucker...
"I have his License, his VIN number..."
"Okay," is all she says. I could have reached through the phone and strangled her. I don't know what info she needs to figure out who this asshole is. Tell me what numbers you need...
So I give her everything I have. I tell her eveverything he did.
"Okay." I want to choke her so she stops saying okay.
Silence.
Finally she says, "Is there a number where I can reach you if I need any more information?"
I give her Carrie's number. I get way too many unknown calls on my phone, I probably wouldn't anwer. I also give her Carrie's name, first and last. I really knew this woman couldn't care less when she didn't ask for the last name spelling. I can barely spell Carrie's last name, I know this woman can't. But she didn't ask, I wonder was she even getting any of this down.
Well, they are going to get sick of me calling. I plan to call again in the morning to see if anything was done. I will keep calling until I hear this jerk was fired. That's how pissed off I am about his driving. That's how bad his driving was. I'm not normally a war-path kind of person. Despite how I sound in my blogs, I am usually a quiet person, meek, much as I hate to admit it. I usually shrug things off rather than having to face any kind of conflict, rather than having to face people in a conflict. But I will pull out my backbone when someone has gone too far. This bastard who shouldn't even have a driver's license and definately no trucker's license has gone too far. He tailgated the wrong woman, let me tell you. What if there was a pregnant lady or a baby in the car he thought it was okay to tailgate? What if he'd hit me? I'm this asses worst nightmare, let me tell you... He's going to be unemployed if I have anything to say about it. If I have to, I will take his plate number to the police station. Something will be done about this.
And that's all I have to say about that!
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