Saturday Happenings . . . Petco, & Paw Prince

I’ve had one heck of a day and I do not know where to start explaining the madness so I guess I will start at the beginning. 

Saturday is my time to get different things or chores done that get put off with a busy work week.  This Saturday was no different but I had a few added places to go or stop for things before I was able to stop and relax for the evening.

“Where everybody Knows your Name” – Village Inn breakfast with friends.  I started going to ‘Saturday Breakfast’ over six years ago when I was working on a Project at the University of Alaska Anchorage.  We were building a very nice Library and the project took over a year and a half to complete.

My Superintendent and I started to go there on Saturday morning so we could go over the progress of the job, set goals for the crew in the coming week and to review the past weeks goals and to make sure we had all the material to keep 12-15 plumbers busy the next week.  It was too hectic each day to find the time to lay out our plan so we met ate breakfast and put everything together to minimize mistakes.  We had the same waitress, Vicki for several years before her husband retired from one of the Anchorage Utility companies and they packed up their fifth wheel camper and headed south to southern Utah to camp host that first summer.  Oddly, we passed each other in Canada as I made one of my many trips from Utah to Alaska both stopping at Laird Hot Springs for a quick drive break.  We said our final goodbyes and she had placed us with Diane who has taken good care of everyone these last couple of years. 

Scott commented this morning that it’s nice still going there after all this time as we have tried a couple of places every now and again but keep going to our familiar place where we get great service, the manager and staff know us and drop by to talk with us each week.  Since the beginnings so long ago what started with two people trying to keep a project organize has turned into a sit down between friends.  There may be just one of us there if everyone is out of town or there could be as many as eight people if the full gang drops in.  Most Saturday’s there is usually three or four of us as over time the number ebbs and flows depending on the time of the year or other things going on in people’s lives.  This morning it was only Scott & I enjoying a pot of coffee or four and talking and laughing about any local or national news, the things going on around us, and planning our next adventure somewhere.

After Village Inn I usually spend time on the phone with family or friends on my way to Costco for my weekly chore of getting the bulk items for the family and kids who need the extra help in this economy.  Today I changed my normal routine as I had to take my wife’s rig in for inspection and her tags.  It has been easier the last couple of years as you can now get the inspection and tag at the same location and not have to go to different places.  I found out that I needed to get the tag as my wife was stopped by a policeman on Thursday and realized it was expired for two months.  Yeah, she blamed it on her worthless husband for not making sure it was renewed and promised the cop that the ‘scoundrel’ would get it renewed by the weekend.  Talked her way out of the ticket and only sullied my reputation in the process.  Truth be told . . . I drive her vehicle only when we have an appointment downtown where parallel parking is involved. Other than that, many years ago after I tired of “steering the car while she drove” and told me how I should do this or that I thought it best to not drive when we go anywhere.  It has saved many arguments during that time as I can look out and scout for Moose, Bear, or other ‘human’ animals wandering the wild streets of the city.

Next stop was the Post Office to mail a package to my daughter in Iraq.  This Post Office was closed now on Saturday due to the budget crisis so it placed a list of open offices around town that I could go to so I could get my parcel out.

Costco on the south side of town to stock up on all those necessities needed to get you from week to week.  Making this stop right after breakfast is nice as I do not feel the need to become one of those people who buy the cheapest Costco membership and going in several times a week “eating” their way around the store.  There are so many small tables set up with almost every imaginable food group or snack laid out for everyone to sample.  There are those who have made an art of this ‘sampling shopping’ first going clockwise through the store only get to the cash registers and make a U-turn back counter clockwise for a second pass.  I have seen some who even go so far as wearing a baseball cap the first two times and take it off for a third time with the stupid notion that the person handling out the “nosh”  doesn’t recognize them.  This could also be another Blog subject. 

My fifth stop was Walmart (deserving its own Blog post shortly) so ‘nuff said at this time other than to say the recent remodeling had increased the size and departments within the store.

Across the parking lot is where I get my hair cut so I hoped that I could walk in and have Michelle whack off all my scraggly hair.  It has been a few months since my last visit.  It did not take long before I was in the chair and watched as my grey locks were dropping onto the cape draped over me.  I had her trim a couple ‘wild’ eyebrow hairs since I could not get them to lay down with the others.  They had been driving me crazy the last week so off they went.  Now to shave the beard this weekend grown over the last few weeks while I was out of town fishing and see if I can find that face I used to see, lol.

I stopped by another Post Office to mail off my package and had to fill out the Customs form but somehow did not have enough numbers in the zip code so there will be another trip sometime soon to get this thing mailed off.

I feel like this is a version of Alice’s Restaurant because I told you all of that to get to this part of the story.

After returning to the house briefly it was time to take my granddaughter to Petco for the “Annual Running of the Hamsters”.  I grit my teeth and head off to ‘enjoy’ this time taking ‘Hammy’ in his small travel cage along with is racing ball.  Diane is stoked to go participate where Petco has a small area just inside of the store set up with four lanes to run the competing hamsters.  I thought it foolish before we arrived but quickly see that there are crazy people out there who really get into this sort of thing.  The teams were divided into 4 heats with four hamsters in each heat with the top two moving on to race the winners from other heats finally getting down to a winner. 

There were three heats which included two mice which ran in a smaller ball.  Did they mover farther/faster using a smaller ball which was about half the size of the hamster ball?  I thought so as they seemed to move faster than the many hamsters racing.

Did I say we also brought along Gus the dog?  He was dressed up in his Saturday best sweater and for the most part acted nicely to the other dogs being walked, dragged, or carried by their owners.  It was insightful to see his reactions to the different animals as size did not seem to impact his behavior as I expected but his alertness and possible aggression defense were toward specific dogs.  We have two pit bulls that live next door who he always has to establish his identity and ground so when he saw another pit bull he immediately went into his strong presence mode with a few barks that had meaning behind them, not the easy bark usually given to other animals. 

Gus is a curious dog looking at things as we walked around the store and was ‘picky’ in what he wanted to spend time around for possible play toys or treats.  Petco is smart in how they set up their shelves with many items close to the floor on ‘dog level’ where the animals can smell or grab them from the shelves hoping the gracious pet owner will think it cute and load up their cart. 

Hammy is in Heat # 2 racing against two other hamsters and one mouse in a smaller ball.  Hammy is out of the gate running down the track almost to the other end . . . 8/10 of the way then stops . . . turns around looking at my granddaughter and scurries back toward her at the starting line. The two other hamsters were slowly making their way across the track stopping several times.  The mouse waits to see what is happening and then zooms down the track passing Hammy coming back towards the start line.  He briefly stops to look over before continuing down to the finish line winning the race.  Hammy gets to Diane and turns around and runs back towards the finish line again stopping just short and heading back to the start line for the second time.  The other two racers were slowly making their way down the track finishing before Hammy made 4 trips back and forth finally crossing the finish line.  He did not win but he definitely put in more track footage than all of the others combined.  His prize?  Coupons of course so we could buy more hamster food or accessories.  Hammy for his efforts got a new Cinderella car/running wheel.  He can now self propel himself all over the house in his ride.

We left Petco and took Hammy back to his house and then headed over to her other grandma for Diane to stay the night.  It had been a busy day and it was late afternoon now so we decided to go grab a bite to eat at the Golden Corral for the buffet.  I called Scott to see if he wanted to meet up with us but Kim was chasing one of the kids who had been on an overnight with a friend.

On the way to the Corral Deb wanted to stop at a store to see if they had any Halloween costumes.  I thought she was looking for one that Diane would use but found out it was for Gus who was going to a Halloween Costume Party at Petco in a couple weeks.  Now I did not know or would have ever thought that Anchorage would have any specialty stores for dogs. 

We do and it is called Paw Prince which is a place where there are many different doggie clothes, outfits, and owner’s matching outfits.  It was insane seeing all the goofy stuff they had with several t-shirts, sweat shirts, and dog sweaters with the caption, “Michael Vick is a Dick!”  The owner of the shop said they were a pretty good sell item. 

Upon the realization that this may be more than just a fad I went to the internet and found out there are over a million web sites devoted to pet clothing and specialty items.  There must be many crazy people out there.  I saw wedding outfits, holiday clothing of all kinds, jackets, sweatshirts, and hats. 

My family must also be crazy as they want to take Gus to a Halloween Party at Petco dressed as his namesake, Augustus “Gus” McCrea the Robert Duvall character from Lonesome Dove.  He will be dressed up as a Texas Ranger with hat, gun, scarf, and chaps.  He will also have his Ranger Badge and a sign that reads: Hat Creek Cattle Company, Lonesome Dove Texas.  “We Don’t Rent No Pigs!”

By the time we returned home from all of the activity it was quite late after the final colors of the day turned from the blues of a nice sky to the purple and grays with the final blackness sweeping across the city. 

Ice