What a week. We took a short road trip and spent a few days in Palm Springs, Ca. It was lovely and all but the drive… Oh! Have you ever traveled with a pet that does not like to travel?
The Otter Pup, who is normally a complete couch potato, is a nervous Nellie when she leaves the house. She works herself up into such a state! It makes all of us crazy. It’s not the first time that we’ve taken her to Palm Springs either. We have relatives there and the last time we went, she seemed to do better in the car. This time though, she was all over the place and so nervous. But on the flip side, once there, she seemed to handle the change in environment better than she did the first time. Needless to say, her routine was off so she never slept which meant that “I” never slept. Plus, I didn’t trust her to be good in the house so I was constantly walking her to avoid any accidents. I mean really, no one wants to clean up poo while on vacation so yeah, I took her for extra walks. In that regard, she did very well.
However, because I never got to fully relax, I never did hit “vacation mode” which translates to no photos. I think I snapped one photo which turned out to be a dud because some twit stood right behind my family while I was taking the shot. Every time after that I’d position myself to take a photo and then the pup would get to sniffing and then out the door I’d go to ward off disaster. Plus, The Boy is still grounded so I was sort of grouchy. I guess you can tell that from this post, huh? It was still quite nice to get away though. I just wish I had a few more days to really relax. It took the pup the entire four days to be somewhat normal.
In between the pup antics and everything else going on, I was reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle for #winditup2013. I actually brought an entire bag of books with me but once you start a Murakami, it’s sort of hard to read other books at the same time. You find yourself totally immersed in his world and that was the case this past week. Of those that have weighed in, nearly everyone has said that it’s a lot easier to read than they thought it would be. The book is broken into three books and so many of you have zipped through book one even though I gave everyone two weeks for each book. That’s okay though. The guidelines I gave are just guidelines. Read at your own pace. Whatever works for you, certainly works for me. Now I sound like Toru. If you want to read some of the comments, just go to Twitter and search for #winditup2013. If you don’t use Twitter and want to say something, add a comment to this post. I read every comment. I will say this, I am enjoying it quite a bit. I’ve loved many of his books but this one seems to really click with me.
Today, I am back at work and the kids are back in school and I am sure the Otter Pup (Chloe) is at home, sleeping the week off.
Book Chatter 
Poor little baby, her just didn’t know what was going on! We had a short vacation like you did as well (because of stinking track) so it was hard to really fully relax. But I did sink into the Bird as well. He just has me riveted. But of course now that I am back to reality, I think I’ve read about three pages…
I purposely stopped reading since I just finished book two. I really want to continue but I probably should wait for the others to catch-up. I made this read-along 6 weeks long because of the length and the fact that everyone seemed to be a little intimidated by the book, but clearly 6 weeks is too long!
That doesn’t sound like a relaxing vacation at all. Isn’t funny how the men never worry about things like that?
The Hub wasn’t liking the puppy whining all the way to Palm Springs but other than that, yeah…he was pretty oblivious. My son too come to think of it. The Girl and I were all jittery! We are better now. So is the pup 🙂
Well I hope you got to relax a little bit after you got home… and before heading back to work!
Nope! I came back late Sunday and hit the office early Monday. Ugh! The worst is behind me though, I think.
It sounds like your little dog is very nervous, just like our big one. He actually is going prematurely grey due to his high level of anxiety! I am glad that you are back though, and that you are enjoying the book. I haven’t started my audio copy yet, as I was finishing another one, but today is the day for me!!
The pup is back to being her couch potato self. Slept all day yesterday but decided to get up long enough to say “Hi” this morning. She is so glad to be home.
Sounds like you might have a quiet week since Otter Pup will be napping more. LOL That would have driven me crazy
She slept all day yesterday! When I got home, she was STILL sleeping! She got up this morning and seemed more normal. LOL.
Sometimes I need a vacation from vacation! Here’s hoping things settle down and are a little more restful!
Ha!! Sounds like traveling with a toddler. Elle is fairly good in the car (even though we’ve only gone 4 hours as our longest trip) but she refuses to sleep in a pack and play if she knows that we are close by. She did sleep well with me in Utah (on an air mattress) but *I* did not.
Otterpup sure is a cute pup, though! And I’m eager to get back to Wind-up after a few days off. Little House just isn’t calling me…
Sorry your vacation to Palm Springs didn’t go as you wanted. Plus, your pup is home sleeping and you’re back at work. Something about that is just wrong! 😉
It’s amazing what we do to avert disaster…I was hoping that you would rest…and read…and read and rest…you can bet that Otter Pup is sound asleep today!
I thought it was just cats that didn’t like riding in cars….poor Otter Pup. Even a bad day with an Otter Pup beats work in my book,
You know, I’ve always said that the Otter Pup is more cat-like than dog-like so I guess the cat-like behavior shouldn’t surprise me. And you’re right, a bad day on vacation is usually better than a good day at the office!
So, Otter Pup is a homebody, uh? I can sympathize. She does sound more like a cat than a dog regarding not enjoying the car since so many dogs seem to love car rides. One of our ‘newer’ cats has some anxiety problems, attachment issues, it a little frustrating but mostly heart-breaking. Glad OP is back in her spot and I wish your vaca had been more relaxing.
Wind-up Bird completely absorbed me. I stopped reading when I hit book three but It’s difficult not to keep reading on…I’ll see how long my resolve lasts! I hope you’re having a good week!
Sounds like the Palm Springs trip could have been a little more relaxing, but still good to have a change of scene!
Otter Pup sounds more like a cat–at least like one of my cats when they have to travel. My dog is such a good traveler. He’s just happy to be allowed to come along. My parents’ former dog, however, much like your Otter Pup. It’s made my mom nervous about traveling with her dog now, which is sad because I bet she’d be a great traveler.
I agree that so far The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is much easier to read than I thought it would be. I took a break after the first section, and I am looking forward to getting back into it!
I understand about the crazy dog in the car. Lily pants the entire time. When we go up north to our camper she pants for the FULL 4 hour trip. I’ve looked into getting her drugs from the vet to KNOCK HER OUT!! It drives me crazy and puts me in a pissy mood 🙂
I took a bit of a detour in my reading (library book that came in unexpectedly with only 14 days to read it) but I will be cracking the spine this weekend on Wind-up!!
Chloe pants in between the meowing. Yes! Meowing! But her pant is more clicky. Click, click, click. Like she needs water.
Sorry about the Vaca. Gosh I miss my pup; here I am in Florida and am missing my dog back in North Country. ughh. Your pooch hopefully is glad to be back home
So sorry you are missing your pup. Are you having a good time though?
Otter Pup is SO glad to be home. She slept for two days and now is back to her couch potato self.
Sorry you didn’t get to relax more on your vacation! I’m so glad you decided to host the readalong. Don’t know that I would ever have picked up Murakami, even though I wanted to; for some reason I was so intimidated. I’m finding it very readable, although I am making lots of notes and highlighting a lot as I try to make sure I’m not missing something deeper.
Your comment was in my spam folder so I apologize for the late reply. I am not taking many notes with Wind-Up which I am sort of surprised about but maybe that’s because I put my comments in Twitter with this one. It’s good because I can go back and scan what I’ve said. Refreshes the memory. I have a write-up that will post on Monday for book one. I will probably do the write-up for book this weekend just to get it down before I venture into book three. It’s getting harder to keep the chapters fresh now that the story line is picking up.
Oh I love the Otter Pup’s big eyes!!
And Wind-Up Bird is a very easy read … albeit a strange one. I’m just not going to be able to wait and read according to the schedule. I’m getting close to finishing Book 2 and I’m going to move on directly to book 3!!