The Dog Days of Summer

Thankfully the weather has started to cool down ­– a little. The tremendously hot days of this summer will not soon be forgotten, though ­– especially when looking at our electric bills.

I’m reminded of the hot days of July when I was watching my 2-year-old granddaughter Aubrey. Her mom, dad and mom’s mom (Grandma 1.0) left Aubrey in the care of grandpa (“Pop-pop”), grandma (me – Grandma 2.0) and mom’s friend Celeste while they went on a trip.

Aubrey was so much fun! She’s definitely a water girl and her grandma’s pool at the house where Aubrey lives was perfect for water play. I picked her up weekdays from the Center for Children where she attends daycare (she’s very social and loves it there!) and we’d swim before dinner. Celeste drove up from where she lives in Orange County to watch over Aubrey during the weekends giving me a little bit of a break. Aside from a standoff Aubrey and I had when it came to dinner one night, I had no difficulties – just a lot of fun.

In addition to Aubrey, I was in charge of watching their dog and cat. Having three dogs of our own I wasn’t worried about taking care of the animals. However, my son (Aubrey’s dad) asked that I put the dog in his “house” (aka crate). I wasn’t keen on that idea so I decided to let him roam the house when I was at work.

Imagine my dismay when one night after Aubrey was in bed and I was watching TV, I looked across the couch and noticed one of the decorative pillows was gnawed and torn.

Oh, no! The darn dog must have gotten to it!

I found the manufacturer’s tag and got the pertinent information off of it so I could order a replacement pillow. I found ordering a replacement was easier said than done.

The manufacturer was no help. I could buy a whole new couch but when it came to just one pillow – well, they didn’t offer those.

After much scouring of the internet I found a replacement pillow – on eBay. Not the cheapest but my choices were pretty slim. I bought the pillow with the hope that it would arrive prior to the trio’s return. Alas – problems prevented it from arriving until after they returned from their trip.

So I took the damaged pillow and put it in my car in case the replacement didn’t match and I’d have to take it to a seamstress.

The pillow finally arrived and matched the couch. So my son came over to my house and I handed him the pillow, explaining to him that his dog ate the original. He looked at me and said, “Mom, he ate that pillow months ago.”

Oh, well – at least Grandma 1.0 got a new pillow.

Hopefully that will offset the high electric bill she got for the amount of time I had the a/c on.