Rolling Dog Farm Blog

I drove to Burlington, Vermont yesterday — about two hours from here — for vet appointments at our internal medicine specialist and for a run to Costco to stock up on supplies. Blind Widget was in for an abdominal ultrasound screening and echocardiogram, part of her routine check-up now that she's an older girl, and blind Avery was in for a second round of his heartworm treatment. While they were at the clinic, I headed over to Costco — this is the nearest one to us, the next closest is three hours away in southern New Hampshire on the Massachusetts line. 

On my list was, yes, the pallet of paper towels you see there in the back of the truck. We go through paper towels like crazy here, and the cheapest and most effective way to always have them on hand is to buy them by the pallet. After I took that photo, I threw a tarp over the stack and then tied the whole thing down with ratchet straps. When I get pallet loads of supplies like this, I purchase them first because we have to get them loaded at the receiving dock out back, so it's easier to get that done and out of the way before doing the rest of the shopping. 

After tarping and securing the pallet, I went back inside for my next load — 500 pounds of rice for the dogs' home-cooked meals. (I mentioned in an earlier post that our local supplier is out of potatoes, so until the next harvest comes in this fall, we've switched to rice.) The rice came in 50 pound bags, so that was one very, very heavy cart I pushed through the store and all the way out the parking lot to where the truck was. Believe it or not, all 500 pounds fit comfortably in the back seat of the truck, with room for Avery's crate, too.

Finally, truck packed, I started to pull out when I noticed this sign on the wall by the loading docks:

Okay, now you have to stop and think about that for a second. Apparently enough truck drivers were driving off with Costco forklift operators still inside their trucks that the company decided they needed to post a big sign like this. So either the truck drivers were a) closing the trailer door with the forklift operator still inside — how do you miss someone on a forklift in the back of your truck? — or, worse, b) driving off with the door still open and a forklift operator in the back of your truck. Either way, it makes you wonder, doesn't it?

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