Monday, October 23, 2006

Weekend in Central Oregon

So, because there was no home game for Oregon State (and the game wasn't on tv for that matter) Rachel and I packed a bag and headed over the Cascades to visit my cousin in Redmond. What a great time! Rachel had never been to Central Oregon before, so it was fun to show her a different part of the state.


On Saturday morning, we took Sally's dog Odie to Dog-toberfest, a sort of pet-day for the city. They said they were having dog agility drills, humane society would be there, grooming, blah blah blah. Sounded like a good time. So we get there, and there's an agility course set up with a couple of people kind of milling around. So Sally takes Odie out on the course and tries to get him to jump something. Of course he's having none of it. Apparently neither were the people who set up the course. This really serious looking lady comes over and says that the course is "not open to public dogs" yet. We look around, and there's like absolutely nothing going on. This isn't a professional event, and this lady seems to be the only person who would even care. As she's shooing Sally and Odie off the course, I see a 10 year old kid run out there and do the entire course by himself....as in no dog. Just a kid running and jumping the jumps and weaving between the slalom poles. Serious lady doesn't seem to care. That's when I notice her husband, who is dressed identically to her! Hilarious, and made even funnier by the '70's moustache the guy was rockin'. He's over tending to their dogs. That's when I notice he's got one of those portable dog pens. In one pen, he has three hyperactive dogs that look like they don't know how to do anything except run around that stupid agility course. In the other pen, he has THEIR SON. Basically the dogs and the kid are getting the same treatment. It got worse. First he takes the dogs out and gives them all a run around the course. All this time, nobody is paying a lick of attention to the one year old kid in the portable dog kennel. So now that the dogs have got to run around a little bit, they're all wound up and he throws them back in the pen. Naturally, three dogs in a 5 by 5 cell are going to get a little antsy. So they start play fighting. This is happening with just a flimsy "fence" between the dogs and the baby. What makes you think this is a good idea? Thankfully, the kid was unhurt. But Moustache doesn't even check on him. He just grabs the two antsy dogs holds them apart and says in a forceful tone "that is unacceptable behavior you two! You don't behave like that!" What is this supernanny? I thought it couldn't get any worse, but it did. The guy then finally pays attention to his son and takes him out of the pen. He takes him out to the agility course and LOWERS ONE OF THE JUMPS! Like your one-year old is going to jump over a dog agility obstacle you freakin idiot! The kid can barely walk. He wobbles for a little bit, then flops onto his butt and starts crying. Nice job, Dad. Moustache picks up his kid and mom jumps back into it. She's busy training the dogs, but hears her kid crying. Does she run over to see how he's doing? Nope, she just yells "there's a granola bar in his pen, give him that!" Note to parents: Your kid is not a pet. Your pets are not people. Figure it the hell out. Why does God allow things like this to happen? I was furious. I seriously almost went and grabbed one of the Humane Society's "I need a home" vests that they put on their dogs and placed it on this poor kid. So we left.

Sally also showed us her classroom, which only reinforced my belief that teachers work way too hard for the pay they get, and I don't think I could handle it. Props to Sally though, she does a great job.

Then we visited Smith Rock, which is just an amazing place. After running five straight days, my plan was to take Saturday off from exercise. Instead, we hiked this freakin rock. Not the easiest thing. I think hiking that took more out of me than running. We sat up on top, ate lunch and watched the mountain climbers climb "Monkey Face" which looks surprisingly like a monkey's face. Then we hiked down and went to the pumpkin patch where we met up with some of Sally's friends. The had a pumpkin cannon, which shot pumpkins at about 150 mph. It was insane watching these pumpkins just slam into the side of a beat up van they had out there. Pretty awesome.

Then we went home, had dinner and rented Best in Show in tribute to the psycho dog people we'd met earlier in the day. Sunday we went to Bend, bought some shoes at the Nike Factory Outlet, visited the High Desert Museum and had lunch in Sisters before heading home. All in all a fantastic weekend, made all the better by another Beaver victory!

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