My Parents Came to Visit!

My parents decided that they were going to take a weekend to come see me. I had only one big request. That they bring the dogs. They brought the dogs along with lots of other things that I asked for. 

Woody riding in the car on the way here. Looking out the window.

 

Buster would actually prefer to fall asleep when he gets in the car.

They arrived and I gave them a tour of the place with the dogs.

My dad and I in my kitchen

On Saturday we also toured Bond Falls.

This is my deck. Makes me laugh all those people who would call in at Okemo asking if their room had a 'deck' and would get SUPER mad when it didn't. I didn't even ask for one and I got one! Everyone has some sort of patio/ balcony though.

My room

Laundry room below. 

Living space.

Dining area

My drum found a place above the gas fireplace!

My car Otis has a garage!

 



Fire pit in the common area.

Boat launch.

Recreation Center

Garden, it used to be a softball field.

Dogs were tuckered out!

Walking into my dorm, my apartment is up the stairs to the right. 

Einstein, The Dog Who Chose Me

I have a dog. Most people go to get a dog or puppy and they know they're choosing a dog. But I didn't choose this dog, instead this dog chose me. Much like Oose in Africa, Einstein has for better or worse picked me as his human. To be clear: Einstein actually belongs to my neighbor down the road.

I first met Einstein while I was trying to leave my apartment. He would come over and say hi, I'd pet him, he's wag his tail and then I'd get in my car to go to work. He's possibly a cross between a pit bull and black lab. I'd say about 50 pounds of solid muscle, with a sweet goof ball demeanor. As I was ready to back my car up he would go stand directly behind my car so close that I couldn't see him. I wondered if this dogs name was someones idea of a cruel joke. After about 10 minutes of trying to get this dog to stand somewhere other than directly behind my car I was able to leave.

The next day I noticed him inside the fence of the front yard. How this dog had gotten in I'm not sure. He was playing with my landlords dogs and generally causing them to look at him like he was some sort of annoying young whipper-snapper.

Einstein then while exploring one day found out where I live. I refused to let him in, I went outside and pet him but I didn't want him to think that it was OK to come into my home and pee on something. The next day it was bitter cold, and he was at my door. He gave me the look of 'aren't you going to let me in?' and I caved, I'm not heartless. He is a very respectful dog and I only had to tell him once to get his nose out of the garbage. He snuggled into the corner of my couch and gave me that look that says 'What are we going to do today?!' Well that day was Valentines Day. Lets face it, Valentines Day for the single person is pretty much the kind of day that you want to forget. And so this dog, probably sensing my not-so excited mood, became my Valentine. He snuggled with me and we watched my favorite movie, Almost Famous. About 9pm his owners came to find him. I was so cold the poor guy didn't want to to home.

Since Valentines Day Einstein has made the pilgrimage to my apartment and made sure I was doing well. This winter hasn't gone so well for me, but at around 10am I can expect a visit from my dog. He shovels snow with me, he starts my car with me, he cooks with me, he snuggles with me, every morning he puts a smile on my face. I know that I can't own a dog right now, but I'm very thankful that Einstein has adopted me this winter.

Best Day Ever

I'd like to tell you all about the best day ever.

Here's a little background information. So you all know that I recently broke up with someone well the icing on the cake that is when we broke up I realized that I had about $500 worth of outdoor gear stored at his house. So I asked him to ship it, he agreed. Well when it came time to put the box in the mail lets just say that funds on his end ran short and he sent me a text which started off with 'since I was nice enough to let you store your things at my house'. Talked about how it wasn't his responsibility... blah blah blah. You all get the picture. Frankly, he was right, it's not his responsibility. My shit, my responsibility. BUT.... since you were nice enough to let me store stuff at your house (what?! we were together, you have a two bedroom house, I have a two door car... I'm having a hard time finding where it was such an problem but whatever.) So I offered to send money or go and get it. You guessed it, I had to go and get it.

And so that's how the best day ever started out. With a 3 hour car ride to get my stuff.

When I got there he politely asked how I was, to which I responded in very gruff fashion 'FINE!' Clearly I wasn't fine but if I had said 'I'm really feeling stressed and awkward right now and I don't really want to see you because seeing you and being here makes me feel uncomfortable' I have the feeling that would have just opened doors for more conversation, which I wasn't up for. And it's always easier to believe you will have more composure when times like this happen, apparently I overestimated myself. So I was there a grand total of about 7 minutes. I dropped off some tupperware and a coffee mug that he had let me borrow. The most amount of communicating I did was with his dog, Lupin who I do really miss. She's a sweetheart.

Next driving another 3 hours to my cousin Nathans house in Vermont. I got to stew about how terribly rude I was and how things could have gone SO MUCH BETTER if I was able to keep some level of sanity, the entire ride was like this.

Upon arrival at my cousins I notice there is a horrible smell coming from... somewhere. It's the unmistakable smell of dog poop. I check my shoes... nothing. I was really hoping that's where it was because if it wasn't it meant that the smell was coming from somewhere in the house. There are two dogs living here, Zeus the boston terrier and Apollo the lab/ golden mix. It wasn't a total surprise if I found dog poop on the floor. The dogs are crated during the day and so I could hear them getting excited upstairs, but I was on the lookout for dog poop. They were just going to have to wait. No dog poop was found. Then I went upstairs and the smell was worse up there. I found where the smell was coming from, the crate. Apollo had diarrhea and it was all over BOTH dogs. This was going to be bad.

I knew that they both had to go out immediately and then they were going to both need baths. There was nothing else I could do but open up the crate both dogs came bursting out and like all dogs that are covered in shit they jumped on me. Awesome. Now I have shitty pants. I put them both out and made sure that they were very well done with any business I was also hoping the snow would clean off their paws. Then one at a time, Zeus first, they got baths. Zues is very good in the bath. Apollo on the other hand isn't. I had to lift him into the tub consequently getting poop pretty much on all the parts of my jeans that didn't already have dog poop on them. Zeus also came in the bathroom while Apollo was being washed and just watched. His little dog expression was one of empathy for his brother, as if he were there for moral support. Both dogs left the bath much cleaner.

I also put more wood on the stove so that they could be warm while they dried off.

I then cleaned up the crate as best as I could. An entire roll of paper towels later and lots of simple green I felt I could leave the rest for my cousin. The whole crate really needs to be taken apart and scrubbed, which I really don't know how to do, nor do I want to do it.

I then took off my dog poop pants and got into some pj's, I had brought my laundry and was hoping to wash them but it wasn't that important to wash the pj pants.

Then after not a whole lot of convincing my cousin Abbie came over and with her ukulele we sang some songs about my already terrible day. I cracked my first beer as this was my plan all along to get a little inebriated to drown my stress.

I then decided that the kettle on the stove needed some water. So I took it and began to fill it up, well like a moron I forgot that adding water to a hot kettle only just makes it steam for a little while. Now I have two steam burned fingers on my right hand. The worst has a nice blister on it. That smarted.

My cousin Nathan came in and offered to put my dog poop jeans in with his work pants.

I cracked a bunch more beers and opened my mail and realized that I have been summoned for jury duty. Awesome.

I also realized I got a new phone from verizon, sweet.

I then went to bed and my fuzzy head was asleep before it even hit the pillow.

I woke up today and the smell of dog pee was all I could smell, I found where it was coming from, my pillow. So I took a shower because my hair reeked of dog pee.

After watching some Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory I decided it was time to leave and gave my cousins a hug and pet the peeing and pooping dogs on the head.

Upon entering the car I saw a bag with my ex's coffee mug, tupperware and a jar. The bag I thought I had left at his place. But nope, I left an entirely different bag at his house, full of tupperware. Frankly, he wins, the bag full of tupperware more than replaces what he had lent me. So if he ever reads this, I have your coffee mug still but keep reading and I'll keep it for the treatment of my things.

When I got home and was unloading the box that I had retrieved from my ex's house I realized that the box had gotten wet. He didn't do anything about it, or notice it. Consequently, my bedding that was inside the cardboard box is full of mold and is probably stained for life.

Best day and half ever. Not so sure I can take much more of this good luck.

Tourists

After dogs the biggest part of my job is keeping tourists happy. I make my money off tourists, they are what pays for everything. I never for a second forget that they are the reason why I can be here and living the way that I do.

The town I live in is a cruise ship port. People are all on vacation and they come off their cruise and then go into town and do their shopping thing/ other excursions. You can see the buses full for the tours going by to try gold panning or go to some sort of salmon bake. They go in and out of shops and there are shows that actors dress up in period costume for. After all this town was a bit of a rough place during the gold rush and people enjoy attempting to go back to that time period.

I have been on a cruise before, granted it was to Western Caribbean, but still they are all pretty much the same. In every port there are a series of excursions that you can do and there is usually a town that you can go shopping in. The towns have pretty much the same stores. I'll let you in on a little secret: when you're doing the cruise stops keep in mind that a lot of the shops are all owned by the same people in every port. So a company will have a shop in port #1, #2, #3... they will also have multiple shops in the same town attracting a different audience. The tourists come off the ship... walk around... and then get back on. There are thousands of tourists on each ship.

Now one would hope that if you were paying for an excursion you would be interested in the tour offered. Boy was I wrong! In an ideal world, yes this is what happens, but in the real world some people just look at the price tag and say 'well it's the most expensive it must be good.' and so that is how more people than I imagined get up to Dog Camp and are not actually be interested in dogs. Many people are, but then you have some who are more interested in the snowmobiles. It's very sad for the mushers when they would rather sit on the snowmobile and take pictures rather than pet a dog who is dying for attention. They also are the same people at the end of the tour who are not interested in puppies. I wonder if they have a soul....

Most tourists are nice but then every now and again you get the one or two that just don't get it. They treat you like you're less-than they don't accept 'no' as an answer. They pick on my sunglasses tan and don't listen when I tell them things. Yes I realize they are on vacation but when I say 'It's time to go towards the helicopter site' I don't actually mean 'please take 15 more pictures of puppies and take your gloves off, take pictures of you jumping with a dog team in the background, and go to the bathroom.' Funny how it seems that when I close the box full of puppies people seem to think that RIGHT THEN is the time to take more pictures... even though I've warned them it's going to be closed soon. Tourists do love their picture taking. Another thing they love is to ask the same questions 'When are you getting out of school?' 'Do you live here?' 'Do you have another shot of us?'

I take their action shot while they are sled, and it's moving. As I'm sure you can imagine this becomes quite challenging 'Everyone smile and wave! Now look at me! 3..2..1!' most of the time it turns out just fine. Then there are times when someones hand is in someones face. I will retake the photo if this is the case. However I will not take the photo if your own hand is in front of your face. I counted you down, I warned you, and then your musher told you too. Not my fault. Also the people who will keep their camera in front of their face I will not retake their picture, they will have some amazing video of me taking their picture and telling them to look at me. Then they ask why I have a picture with either their hand or a camera in their face. Tourists will often times take so many pictures that they do what we call the 'virtual tour' which means that they never taken their camera away from their face and just look around... with their eyes. They are constantly looking through the lens of their camera, rather than with their own eyes. You'd rather watch the tour instead of experience it.

Hundreds of tourists come and go and I've yet to have an unhappy tourist. The ones that stick out in my mind are the ones that do something incredibly stupid like ask 'so do you ever get cold up here?' or 'Do you helicopter the dogs in every day and out every night?' my personal favorite 'is this really your career?' or 'so what is your goal in life really?' Well it sure as f*ck isn't to take your picture lady, get back on the helicopter.

At the end of the day we all share our stories, after all we do need to vent about our day. But like I said we all keep in mind that without tourists our job wouldn't happen. With that said we all wake up again and paint on our happy faces to greet the next batch of tourists.

Dogs

 I realized that I haven't really talked about dogs yet. Dogs are a very big part of my job. Everyday I get to play with dogs, comfort them, hold them, love them... it's great. You know when you walk in the door after being gone, even if it's only 5 minutes, and your dog is super excited to see you every time? Imagine that happening but with 40 dogs. At 6 am when we wake up and start scooping poop they all bark, wag their tails, run in circles and look at you with those excited eyes 'I love you! I'm so glad you're back!' Not a bad way to start your day.

 There are a couple of types of sled dogs. The one pictured above is a racing dog. They are a little smaller, about 50 pounds or so and they are bred to race. Another type is a large fluffy dogs. These dogs are bred for freight, pulling heavy gear over long distances rather than moving fast. Sort of the difference between a marathon runner and a football player, each strong and athletic in their own way.

Then of course, there are the puppies! There are currently 12 total on the glacier. 8 are 3 weeks old and 4 are about 10 days. The older puppies are just starting to look like dogs but they're still little butterballs. It's my job to hand them out to tourists. It's tough... but someone has to do it.