Wednesday morning 1 AM . . . whew!

The crate I ordered for the back seat of my truck came today, and like an idiot I waited until I had fed the horses and the dogs, checked my e-mail and fooled around on line for a while before I finally decided about a quarter to nine to go ahead and set the thing up so I could put Joey in there in the morning to go to therapy.  After all, I've had dozens of those crates over the years.  They're not hard to put up.

Well, they're not hard to put up IF you're doing it out in the middle of the floor.  Which is where this one was when I set it up to begin with.  And sure enough, it was no problem.

But then, after carrying it out to the garage (which would have been a lot easier if I'd done it BEFORE opening it up), I discovered that although there were about 6 inches to spare in the back seat area of the truck, there were about 6 inches LESS than necessary in the door opening leading INTO the back seat of the truck.  Given that I had no idea how to remove the truck door, I was going to have to fold the thing up again, put it in the truck, then open it back up.  Darn.  Irritating that I didn't think of that before I set it up initially, but no problem really.

No problem??  Ha!  Unlike most of my crates, the latches attaching the ends to the sides of that thing do NOT have springs attached.  You have to physically bend the crate to release the latch. 

NOT an easy process.  Took me at least 45 minutes to get the thing folded back up.  But then I was able to get it into the back seat and open it back up.  It only took another 10 minutes or so.   I'd already gotten one end latched in place again when I suddenly realized that the doors on the ends of the crate were hinged on the OPPOSITE side from the truck door hinges so if the truck door opened to the left, then the crate door would open to the right, leaving very little space in the middle to get him in there, and making it necessary to use one hand to hold the truck door open to one side, one hand to hold the crate door open in the opposite direction, and a third hand (uh-oh) to push Joey between the two doors and into the crate.  Hmm.  Much as I hated to think about it at that point, I knew THAT was not going to work and that yes, I was going to have to fold the da...d thing up -- AGAIN.  Take it OUT of the truck -- again.  Turn it around.  Put it BACK in the truck -- again.  Unfold it -- again.  Then fasten the ends in place -- again.  By then it was almost midnight and I was dripping wet (it is HOT out there!!).  I'm really glad Mark was still offshore because I was using language I haven't used since I worked in a chemical plant 20 years ago!  I was so mad at myself for being too STUPID to think ahead!! 

But . . . it's in there now, and the crate door and the truck door both open in the SAME direction so I can lean against both doors at the same time and have both hands free to get Joey inside. 

So my truck (which I love) will now be safe from both ends of Joey!!  What a relief!  Guess it was all worth it. 

Well - I'll probably feel more like it was worth it by morning when I've calmed down and rested up.