I Still Have the Chills

This is a long post. But, you need to know this information. Bear with me and please, read on.

Dave and I are house sitting. In the wilderness. It's a beautiful home nestled in the woods - absolutely amazing place. We've stayed there many times since Dave and the owner have worked together quite a bit since we moved to Nashville, and he trusts us to take care of his horses, his dog, Puzzles, and property. We love to stay out there.

Here's where it gets interesting. And let me also warn you that the Tuesday story is a bit yucky, and you may want to skip it if you're not really into yucky.

Monday: first day we were out there. We were so tired Monday night that we instantly went to bed when we got there and luckily I hadn't remembered THIS whole thing about the last time we stayed.

Tuesday: we noticed a smell right away that was, to put it delicately, naaahas-tay. It smelled like rotting fish, a smell we know well having grown up by a lake. We discovered what appeared to be a fully digested dead animal that had been "pooed" out by Puzzles in the shower. Dave and I were understanding and compassionate towards Puzzles and actually not angry, because as I put it Tuesday night, "Poor Puzzles. That really looked like emergency poo." And who can blame a dog for emergency poo?

Wednesday: so so tired. I decided to take a much needed nap after work. I curled up in bed and heard Puzzles playing upstairs. I had never seen Puzzles go upstairs before, so I thought it was pretty unusual, but not a big deal, so I fell right to sleep. Wednesday night Dave and I were talking in the living room and I was telling him about Puzzles playing upstairs and we looked over the stairs and noticed that the BEDROOM DOOR WAS CLOSED! Puzzles can.not. open doors, or even shut them... she can't do that. Whatever was up there 1. got in somehow, through a hole in the house? That's still there? For other animals to climb into? 2. Either figured its way back out of the house or 3. IS STILL UP THERE. 4. I'm still creeped out.

So, I was already a bit on edge Wednesday night and then we heard more Puzzles activity just next to my side of the bed in the master bedroom. "Weird," I said, "I didn't even hear Puzzles come back in here." DUHM DUHM DUUUUHMM. We turned on the light, and sweet little fuzzy Puzzles was nowhere to be seen. So... what the heck was that noise? And what the heck were those subsequent noises in the wall, the closet, and the ceiling?

Thursday: oh man. Thursday. Dave and I were discussing the strange noises (read I was freaking out and Dave was doing his best to calm me down) and I decided to investigate. Keep in mind, I'm not the investigatory type. I like to keep myself away far from whatever it is I don't know about. I would like to continue to be, at all times, left in the dark, singing my rainbows and sprinkles tunes and whistling sparkles.

Speaking of dark - earlier that night, Dave thought it would be really fun to sneak up on me in the dark kitchen at 9:30 at night. It wasn't really fun. I was a mess after that. And back to "after that..."

There I went to break out of my comfort zone and check things out for myself. I opened the closet door. Mistake number one. I found a giant, hairy, scare-the-hoo-haw-out-of-me, monster. It was all squatty in the back corner of the closet, waiting to jump out at me and drag my terrified body up into the wall forever and keep me as a slave. Turns out, it was a 3 feet tall spool of white and gray wool that had not been spun yet. Mistake number two: who the heck keeps a spool of unspun wool in their closet?! I climbed back into bed and pretended that the last three days had not happened.

Today: Dave's parents are coming to visit us this weekend. I think I'll let them stay in the master bedroom.