And So It Goes in The Adventures of Sugarbear and Cupcake

Umm wow. I haven’t written since December?! WTF? Well, a lot has happened since then. Major life decisions and all that. I just felt the need to come on here and.....release....I guess. No puppies by the way, thank God. Rogue was not pregnant. I was worried for a bit there. Everything is good with the family and friends. I got a brace for my left ankle which has always given me problems cause I walk on the outside of my foot. The dogs have since chewed it up,, of course. I have insoles also, and they do help some. I’ll get another brace though, just in case. Ludo got meds for his ears and his skin allergies. Both work wonders. Now we just have to bring him back for a follow up. Which leads me to the car incident.

So I was sleeping a couple weeks ago. It was around 8:15 or so. I get a call from Randy, who had just left for work a little bit ago. I groggily answer and he says “Hey baby. The car is on fire.” Ummmm....what?!?! I know I misheard him, but he repeated and no, I heard right. He was driving on 440 and braked to let another car merge. As he sped up, he heard a loud pop and smoke started coming from under the hood and through the air vents. He pulls over and another car also pulls over. 2 men come running out with a fire extinguisher telling him to get out of the car! He couldn’t see the fire while he was sitting in the car, but when he got out, he could see it under the car. It melted through the undercarriage. The fire truck came and put it out. So I catch a Lyft to where he is and we call AAA and our insurance. Thank God for both of them. So we get the car towed and the insurance got us a rental car. They think it’s going to be totaled. Just waiting to hear back from them. But we’re trying not to bring the dogs in the car cause heaven forbid something happen we’d be liable. But now it’s just a waiting game. So we’ll see.

Also, we’re working on getting our CDL class B!!!! I’ve always been curious about driving trucks. Randy’s always wanted to do it. Neither one of us wants to drive trailers though. So we’ll do straight truck expediting. We’ve done research, watched videos and everything. We should be able to take the dogs with us. We won’t have all the bills we have now, like rent, electricity, water, gas etc. So we’ll be able to save a lot of money and invest also. We’ll be able to cook to a degree on the truck. We’ll still work on losing weight, we’ll just have to use time wisely and eat smart. We’ve both lost 3 pounds so far. So we’re excited. We’ve started looking through things to give away and what we want to keep. We’ll keep the stuff we want to keep in storage. Just waiting to hear back from this scholarship program to see if we’re approved for them to pay for our class and training to get our CDL. That was a process in and of itself. The woman helping us drove me crazy. She just talked soooooo much. And told us different things to add or take away from out paperwork every time we talked with her. But I think we won’t have to much more. Thank God. Just a waiting game for that also right now.

But on to what’s really been on my mind for some reason lately. Our neighbor, Rob. So early this year my parents get a phone call. That night (a few minutes before the phone call, in fact), I was walking Rogue. It was raining. Rob was taking his trash can back to his house. I saw him and Rogue started barking (she does not like him). I pull her to the side and motion for him to go ahead. He doesn’t acknowledge, so I figure I’ll go ahead to let him pass, then I’ll go back out and let Rogue use the bathroom. I can kinda tell he’s not happy though. So a few minutes later I get a phone call from my parents saying Rob called them furious. He said he just had to wait in the rain for 30 seconds because my dog was barking at him, the dogs bark for hours on end when we’re not home, we don’t take the trash can back to our house in a timely manner and we don’t pick up the dog’s poop. He said the dogs run up and down the stairs all day and they’re always barking at him on the deck. And he wants to report us to animal control/the city the next time anything happens. Now, we used to be bad about the trash can and the poop, but at the time of this phone call, we’d rectified those situations already. And we have bark collars for the dogs we thought were working. So after a little back and forth we agreed to all meet in front of the houses with Rob and talk this out. At this point I was furious. We’ve talked to Rob before when problems arise. He never comes to us. Always goes to my parents. We’ve given him our phone numbers, said just come to us so we can resolve any issues. We don’t want to be bad neighbors. But if we don’t know we can’t fix the situation.

Anyway, the next afternoon we all meet outside. Covid and all, you know. I was still pissed. Randy wasn’t too happy either, but he’s better at being diplomatic than I am. So Rob comes out all aggressive and everything with the community handbook in his hand. He starts yelling about all the things I’ve mentioned, except he says he never said anything about the dogs running up and down the stairs. He says we leave the dogs alone on the deck and leave the house. I said we’ve never done that, he basically calls me a liar and then Randy says he leaves for work and I’m at home with the dogs. Which is true, we’ve never left them on the deck when we’re not home to watch them. Well, apparently we can’t have them on the deck without being physically out there with them. Part of a tethering law. Which is fine, we didn’t know. JUST TELL US. He also says he’s intimidated to come talk to us. Now, I don’t know if you remember the dog sitting incident. We went over and talked then. We’ve been nothing but civil to this man ever since we’ve moved in. Never raised our voices, always tried to fix any problems. On the other hand, he greeted my parents that first day by yelling that he was going to have their car towed because the parked in the wrong spot. I have no idea how we’re intimidating. And he kept saying “why is does it always have to be about the dogs, why is it always about the dogs?” Well, because that’s what the issue is that you’re complaining about. What does that question even mean? Anyway, we said we wouldn’t leave the dogs out on the deck unless we’re out the with them. If they bark we take them inside right away. We bought a little camera that connects to my phone so we can see them when we’re out of the house. We have collars for all of them and make sure they’re tight and facing the correct way to spray if they bark. We pick up the poop and are punctual with the trash can like we’ve been doing. We drove him crazy I’m sure the first few weeks after “The Talk” asking if the dogs barked or are bothering him. Everything has been fine since then. I mean, I still haven’t spoken with him and I don’t intend to. I have nothing to say to him. I’ve lost all respect for him and the way he deals with issues. He’ll smile in your face and then stab you in the back. Before he called my parents there had been no indication there was a problem. But he’ll talk to Randy and he’s said the dogs have been fine. I mean, Randy doesn’t really want to talk to him either, but he can at least be civil when Rob says hi. I don’t know if I can. I mean, I’m still angry. Very angry. I know I need to let it go, and it’s only hurting myself. I just can’t stand him. I’ve never really liked him, but I could tolerate him. It’s just been on my mind recently. I figured writing it down would help me not think about it as much lol. Hopefully it works.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. Until next time guys!