Today was a beautiful day. Although the temperature was a bit on the cool side (56 degrees), the sun was out and the sky couldn’t have been any bluer. 

Since we had done all of our “chores” yesterday, our reward was to enjoy the day today. We’ve done a lot of exploring around here, and have visited all of the nearby towns, but we thought we’d head out for a drive. Yep, today we were Sunday Drivers!

We headed north, first on the Interstate, then to the highway, the to farm roads, then to the back roads. The scenery was beautiful, and along the way we took note of each historical place. Most dated back to the mid 1800’s, and I like to imagine what it must have been like back then. When the German settlers made their homes here, there was no heating, no air conditioning and making it even more difficult, there were Indians that were not interested in having these new settlers. (Please no political comments regarding immigration!)

We pulled into a little town, drove past the small, very old church, and an equally small, very old school. This little town so so cute and so picture perfect, I made the comment that it looked like a movie set. We reached the intersection which consisted of a stop sign ( no traffic signals here!) and to the right was an old gas station, and to the left was the country store. Well, who can pass on that? I was pretty sure Andy Taylor and Barney Fife would be inside having a piece of pecan pie. 

We went in, and sadly Andy and Barney were long gone. This place was pretty small. And it wasn’t so much a general store as it was a diner (although we did see a rack of sunglasses for sale). We walked in and felt like city slickers lost in the country. Only we were there on purpose! 

We walked up to the counter to place our orders and spoke with the cutest little old man who surely was the owner. He was cute as a bug, friendly, kind – like the kind of grandpa everyone would want to have! He proceeded to tell us all about his place, and that they were known for having the best hamburgers and cheeseburgers. We placed our orders and he told us that we would pay when we’re done, and if we tried to skip out he had a 9mm under the counter! I actually don’t think he was kidding.

The burgers were good, then he started bragging about the pies. So we were pretty much obligated to have a piece of pecan pie (we couldn’t hurt the man’s feelings after all!). We finished and paid, and chatted with him for a bit about the history of the area. As he talked, some of the local people meandered in, some with roots dating back to when the town was settled. 

We drove home – which really wasn’t very far, and I couldn’t help but think to myself…I thought we lived in the country, this must be the country in the country!

Country living at its finest. It was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time.

I was far away. Way far away. So deep in sleep, I couldn’t even tell you what I was dreaming about. Whatever it was, something in my dream smelled…really bad. What is that? And just like that, I was wide awake. and I had no idea what time it was, but it was still very dark outside.

I couldn’t quite figure out what the smell was. Did one of the dogs have an accident in the bedroom?  Is something burning? Why are the dogs  outside begging to come in instead of curled up on their beds? By this time I was sitting straight up in bed. My eyes were fuzzy, but my nose was working just fine.

About that time, JD came into the bedroom and I could tell something was not right. In fact, I knew something was terribly wrong.

As usual, Rodeo woke JD up at about 5:00 wanting to go outside. He said the minute he opened the door, the dogs were out and off into the tall grass tracking an animal. Since it was dark, he had a flashlight with him (no street lights, so it’s pretty dark outside), and then he saw it. Something black. And then…oh no, not the white stripes. Lucy! Rodeo! Come here!!!

Lucy stopped and came back pretty quick. I’m guessing one spray from the skunk was enough for her. But Rodeo….well, Rodeo is still a puppy and she has no common sense whatsoever! In fact, some kind of biological event takes place when her sense of smell kicks in, her hearing completely shuts down, and she will not come back when called. She chased that skunk probably until there was no stink left to spray, but eventually she came back. Poor JD didn’t want to go chase her down so he waited patiently (not!) for her.

He opened the door and ran them out into the backyard. Now, it’s maybe 30ish feet from the front door to the back, and in that short distance of them running from one door to the other, the entire house was filled with skunk smell.

And that is what woke me up.

Because I’m a mom, instantly my mind starts working. And, being that I am of the Brady bunch generation, I quickly remembered when the Brady’s dog “Tiger” was on the receiving end of  skunk and hey bathed him in tomato sauce. Or was it tomato juice? As I was lying in bed (JD did tell me to go back to sleep since I had to get up and work!) I found myself wondering how much tomato sauce I had on hand. I’ll bet I can come up with a couple of cans, but I know I don’t have any tomato juice. It was about this time that my common sense woke up. Surely that wont work, I’ll Google it and see what kind of online help there is.

The common recipe consisted of hydrogen peroxide, dish washing soap, and baking soda. Seems a bit harsh. Then I remembered seeing a bottle of “Skunk Off” the last time we were at the vet’s office. So at 7:30am, I was on the front porch waiting for the vet’s office to open, but before I left I lit every scented candle I could put my hands on and opened the windows (fortunately, it’s open window season here).

In the end, the “Skunk Off” worked great, the wind was blowing, the house aired out and the dogs are back to smelling like dogs much sooner than I anticipated.

When things go awry, I frequently tell my daughter, “one day this will be funny.” Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait too long. We are already laughing about it, but I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I was slightly (okay more than slightly) worried that JD was also going to smell like skunk for a while!