Merry Christmas
And to all a good night! And a good year! And…well, whatever!
So, since I last posted, all of this has happened:
1) The Boy graduated high school.
2) Chewie had to be put to sleep. The day The Boy graduated high school.
3) The Hubby had to travel. On his vacation. On the day Chewie had to be put to sleep. On the day The Boy graduated high school.
4) My gracious sister in law, visiting from Colorado to see her nephew graduate high school, had to drive with me to the vet’s to put Chewie to sleep. On the day my husband had to travel. On his vacation. On The Boy’s graduation day.
You see where this is going, right? A LOT has happened since I last wrote, and all that above was just one day of all the stuff that happened.
Fast forward a bit….
The Boy went off to college. I mostly held it together when we dropped him off at the dorm. The Hubby….well, let’s say he was caught unaware of how much he needed to hold it together. But we managed. The Boy managed. Well, he managed to be patient while his parents got emotional and, dare I say, weepy. But all is well – the dorm is ok (although he’s not too impressed with the cafeteria food) and his roommate is ok, but most importantly he MET.A.GIRL. Wait, maybe I need to back up. I forgot to mention he broke up with The Girlfriend before he left for college. So it’s totally OK for him to get a new girlfriend. Which is what he did when he met.a.girl. We got to met said girl and she seems very nice. And good for The Boy. Happy Boy = Happy Parents.
Fast forward a bit more…
November arrives (just like it always, right after October). Oh, wait… October. But before October, there was August. (Not right before, but, before, you know?) And August’s main event was Hurricane Irene. Otherwise known as The First Week The Boy Was At School And I Was Home Alone Without Power While The Hubby Traveled And Had Power. (I’m sure that’s what everyone was calling it.) Yes, we were out of power for about a week. Yes, we have a gas generator. Yes, I had to fill that sucker up myself while The Hubby was gone. Although he did fill up the gas cans before he left, so there’s that.
So… where was I next? Ah, yes… October. Freak snow storm. And if you guessed that once again it was the week known as The Boy Was At School And I Was Home Alone Without Power While The Hubby Traveled And Had Power, you would be correct. Except this time, it was COLD. And got DARK at 4 in the afternoon. Nothing cheerier than sitting at home, alone with one dog, in the dark, without heat (well, I did have the propane fireplace), and having to go outside to fill up the damn generator with gas to keep the frig going and occasionally turn a lamp on. Nope, nothing cheerier than that. Because, at that point, at least I had the dog.
And now November. Pansy is looking skinny. Which is generally good. She’s been a bit of a porker since we got her from the pound and the vet had always been after us to get her to lose some weight. She clearly missed Chewie. Her pal was gone – no one to run around with, harass, steal toys from, play, or chase. So I figured she wasn’t eating as much while she was grieving. But one night, The Hubby said he thought Pansy’s breath stank. And it did. The same exact way Chewie’s breath stank about 2 – 3 weeks before we had to put him down. I called the vet the next day and got her in for a checkup. She was super good and the vet didn’t seem to think there was a big problem – or at least, nothing she could tell from the exam. They didn’t smell any stinky breath or see any signs of discomfort. But they did take a blood sample. And the results were not good. Kidney disease – the same thing Chewie had suffered from. From the results, they figured she had about 80% kidney failure. It became clear within a week that she was going downhill quickly. She basically stopped eating. She wasn’t drinking much. She did, however, still seem to be happy and willing to do things with me.
So, the first weekend that The Boy came home with The New Girlfriend, I had to wake him up and tell him we were taking Pansy to the emergency vet’s to put her down. (And if you were The New Girlfriend, wouldn’t you want one of the first experiences with your new boyfriend’s family to be woken up by a hysterically crying woman who has to put her dog down? Sure, great way to meet the family!) So this time, it was The Hubby who was with me as we put my dog down. He was kind of surprised at how quick it took effect. But it made both of us relive a little bit Chewie, so it totally sucked.
And to make November complete, I found out my aunt’s cancer had come back. It is basically terminal; the first course of chemo did do much and the second chemo was recently stopped.
Yea, so it’s been kind of a sucky end to 2011.