Sometime during the Summer of 2008, or thereabouts, we decided to expand our herd a little. The new expansion in mind was to get a buck goat to keep and use to breed with our does. After an exhausting internet search I found the perfect little fella and decided that I had to have him. The farm we were buying him from was in a little town about a two hour drive away. After some convincing, Chera was talked into leaving the kids with a friend and we could go together to get our new goat. Maybe not all readers will understand but I'm sure more than a few will understand that with two kids, a full time job and a farm to run, a five hour block of time away alone is priceless. We don't have the time or money to go out on too many dates so we are only able to get away alone once or twice a year. It just so happens that this time that alone time was on a long drive in an old beat up truck with no air conditioning in 90 degree heat. So early one morning, we dropped the kids off at our friend's house and my pregnant wife an I were off on our date. Right now I'm guessing there are not too many women reading this that are "jealous" of my wife but I think she still digs me.
For the most part of the trip we rode right along in an uneventful quiet trip. We passed the time discussing our still new farm and what we had planned, how we could make it work. With Chera as the navigator we managed to follow the directions and find our way to the last leg of the journey which was a two lane highway rolling through farm country. We were now in the process of looking at each house trying to find our destination, we were close but in the farm country it is often difficult to see house numbers. Then I saw what I thought may be the place, a small farm with a bunch of goats grazing in the pasture. I saw it a little late and had to quickly brake and turn into the driveway. During this fast paced driving manuever I killed the truck and there we sat at the bottom of this farm's driveway. This is where a little worry popped into my head as my truck is not the most reliable vehicle you can think of and I wasn't too confident in the rest of our trip. I looked at my wife and she was simply looking at me with a half grin that said, "Nice move, big guy." No problem, I thought, I turned the key.... nothing. Tried again...... nothing. Uh oh. "What now?" I heard from the passenger seat. The answer was easy, this is a farm, not the one we were looking for, but a farm none the less. My new plan was just walk up to the house and knock on the door, any farm guy was surely to come down and help me out. Wandering up the driveway was filled with new thoughts of how a completely broke fella like myself would ever be able to afford a truck that didn't break down once a month and maybe had air conditioning. I walked up the driveway which was about 1/2 mile long and then it wound around a corner to the house.
As I approached the house I noticed yellow lab looking dog lying in front of the door. Now its time for me to come clean on one of my fears. I'm deathly afraid of strange dogs. So I stopped and stood there. Kind of hoping that someone inside would notice me and come to the door and ask, "Hey dummy, why you standing in the middle of my driveway?. This didn't happen. So, plan B I guess. The dog looked harmless enough, after all I had been standing there for several minutes and he just was lying there looking at me. This is when I began my series of dog friendly chat, you know, "Hey buddy, how ya doing? Hey poochie, poochie. Are you friendly?" Like I was expecting the dog to speak and say, "Sure, friend, come on up." But, he didn't answer me. Oh well I thought and I started walking toward the door. It was at this point when I finally didn't care about that lab anymore. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed movement. I looked over and there stood the largest, in tact male pit bull I have ever seen. He stood there, staring at me, and I stood there staring back, shaking. All I could say was, "My goodness, you sure are a big fellow." He growled. Not a bark, just a low pitched, menacing, completely horrifying growl. I've heard dog experts before spout off something about standing your ground, make eye contact, let him know who's boss. I'm here to tell ya folks, not happening. Instead, I took the path of shaking and melting like a bowl of ice cream in the microwave. I literally felt like just breaking down sobbing, curl up in a fetal position and accepting my fate. This is when my survival instinct took over. Slowly I began backing up, talking the whole time in as calm of voice I could muster. As i was backing toward the winding part of the driveway. The dog slowly walked across the yard and stood in the middle of the driveway, cutting me off from the truck. Now I was cornered and in the "fight or flight" mode. My flight had been cut off so it was time to fight. I slowly bent down and found myself three fist sized rocks and armed myself. Well, this dog was not only menacing he was also extremely intelligent, because as he saw me pick up the rocks he just slowly walked away toward the house and my path was cleared.
Walking back to the truck, my attitude was very different than the walk up to the house. Rather than being frustrated with my circumstances and feeling self pity, now I was literally just happy to be walking. The fate of my truck no longer dominated my thoughts and i was actually in a rather giddy mood. Not bad for a full grown man that moments before was ready to break down into tears and give up my life. I now stood before the truck, hood up, staring at the engine like I would suddenly become mechanical and see the problem. After all, maybe it was like that movie "The Matrix" and time would slow down and the problem would reveal itself to me. With this in mind, I was quite shocked that while I stood there staring at my engine it suddenly fired up and my truck was running. Looking through the window, I saw a very proud and smiling Chera sitting behind the wheel. Yes, you got it, she simply slid over into the drivers seat and turned the key.
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