woes of a mighty hunter

... or not so mighty, as it turns out. I was supposed to get up at 6 today, abut I didnt' get up til 6:15, and got out of the house at 6:30, which was good, except that halfway there, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. So, I had to turn around and get that. I didn't get to Becky's til 7:45 or so, and her dogs had run off. She waited for them to return, and they didn't , so we finally decided to just leave anyway.

Ah, what a bond with nature, the wind, the trees... the cold. And, I didn't catch a thing today. At one point, I saw a white leaf fluttering through the trees and stared, at it, certain it was the tail of a deer and that it would jump out of the trees at any moment, and tensed as... the wind blew a single leaf gently into the field. *sigh*

Becky and I decided to go back to her house, whereupon she found that her dogs were still gone. So we went looking for them, tearing around on the four-wheeler, which is an aventure in itself in the winter. We still don't find them, so we go and get some lunch.

When I check my phone, I get a text message from Nick: "Run, Bambi, run!!!" it turns out to be strangely prophetic.

When we come back, the big dog is there, but the puppy is nowhere to be seen. So I go tromping through the woods, calling the puppy's name, and Becky goes off through the fields.

About an hour and several frozen fingers later, she finds the puppy, on the other side of the road, about a mile away, lost in some tall grasses. The puppy is filthy, wet and trembling with cold, but at least she is alive. So, however, is every deer in the county; they've been completely alerted to the fact of our presence, with the way we kept shouting for the dog and crashing through the underbrush in the woods.

So the option of hunting is out. We do what chicks do best; we go shopping. But first, I decide to get an oil change, as I'm 2000 miles over my LAST change. I pull in; miss the ramp, and have to back up and try again. The mechanic is a girl, and she is trying not to smirk at me. So what if I can change my own dang oil? I can't drive on the ramps at the Lube shop to save my life. I look the world's biggest girly-girl alive.

So, after the oil has been changed, Chick Mechanic approaches me, with the dipstick and a filthy air filter. "Um, your oil has been changed but you might notice that your air filter is waaay dirty. We can change if for you for $16."

Sixteen dollars??? Wow!!! What kind of air filter is that, man? I can buy alot of tv dinners for $16 (which is exactly what I did later).

So I say anything to discourage a sale, which makes me look incredibly dumb. "No, my dad usually takes care of these things, he'll put one in for me,"

She's smirking again. "Oh, your dad will do it for you? Okaaay, no problem."

What??? My dad will do it for me? An air filter? For crying out loud, they cost $4 bucks at the local Wal-Mart, and they take 3 seconds to install. Considering that I've burnt myself removing too hot oil, scraped the skin off my knuckes because the wrench slipped and I slammed my hand into the car's underbody, this shouldn't be too difficult. Becky, who has gone with me, is laughing. "My daddy does all the work on my car for me, he always does, " she mimics, in a sugar sweet voice. Aw, shaddup...

Later on, I told Nick my pathetic tale, and he laughed, too. Then he said, "oh let your dad do it, ya might break a nail."

Oh well, at least I got the oil changed. I'll get my deer tomorrow:P