Phantom Whispers

the word

Time travels so quickly and here we are in 2012. The age in which, according to my sci-fi reading of my youth, we should have cars that fly, meals we get from a door in the wall and a talking computer to run all needed tasks around the house. We should be living on other planets. So, here is proof that not everything you read is true or will come true. :-)

 

If you been following me on Facebook you know that much of my time has been taken up with Tino, our 10 month old Lab. He is a joy but a handful and has chewed up more than his fair share. Our thirteen year old cats alternate between tolorating him and hating him depending a lot on Tino's actions. It's hard to take something that bounces around like Tigger when you are old. But they deal with him, quiete often with hisses, fluffing up twice their size or chasing down the stairs or out of the room (that's mainly Sophie, Basil is too mellow and lazy to work up the energy to chase a dog). Tino helps with the void left by the passing of Atlas and keeps me moving.

This morning I was laying in bed, a rarity once I awake. I usually have to make my way as quickly as I can to the bathroom. But not this morning. Today I had the leasure of laying in bed getting lost in thought. I know many of my friends have been discovering their word for the year. This is not something I have done so imagine my surprise when the word "celebrate" popped in and resonanted within me. I was filled with joy thinking how much fun it will be to celebrate: life, my life, the world around us. To celebrate all thosegifts that we are each given. Every day. (If all would have gone well a picture of the word celebrate would have been shown here but after trying five times I'm letting go of that idea)

Celebrate is a bright and sparkly word to me, full of color. So I'm hope to convey some of that more this year with you, my friend. Please come join me in the celebration.

Let the party begin!

Part Two

I apologize for all the typos in yesterday’s post. I’m sure there will be more today. Sorry, I try to catch them but I’m trying to get this stuff out of my head more than I want to study it to make sure it is “perfect”.

It has come to my attention that some of you aren’t sure what a yurt is. It is a very cool round tent like structure with lattice sides which give it rigidity. The Mongolians have used them for years as in its traditional form it is also portable shelter.

I forgot to tell you about when we went to pay for the yurt, there were no check in the Mailman’s checkbook. Not a one. I have may checkbook with exactly one check left. All good if I only had enough money in my account to cover the cost, which I don’t. So now, I have to explain to this nice man that the check won’t be any good until Wednesday for the yurt we picked up on Friday.

So, we made it out to the property. The sun is setting. Quickly. We unload the yurt part onto our existing deck. Our friend, Ron, comes down from his place (we share the property) to help us unload. This is great and he has a flashlight, as well/ It’s pretty helpful as it is rapidly getting very dark. Everything is unload and on the deck when the Mailman asks about the tarp in the back of the car. Turns out it wasn’t the one he thought it was and isn’t large enough to cover our yurt parts for the winter. We plan on setting it up in the spring after we build a 20’ platform for it. We need to cover it to make it through the winter. Already the wind is blowing, strongly.

Ron goes back to his place to get something to cover lumber. It will be better than nothing and I am grateful for it as I just want to start back home. It’s getting later and later. While Ron is gone, the Mailman, our oldest son and I lay back and look at the stars. It is totally awesome. I forget each time how few stars I see in the city and am stunned anew.

Ron comes back with the cover and starts to tack it into place. But the Mailman has no misplaced the flashlight. We look everywhere. We didn’t find it. We convince Ron to accept our much smaller flashlight by way of apology. The cover gets tacked down but all of the yurt parts aren’t covered. But it is the best we can do for now. Maybe we’ll get back later in November to cover it all. We can only hope.

We borrow tools form Ron to change the headlight. By now we are all very careful about where things are placed and returning everything to the right spot. The headlight goes in without a problem and works. Yay!!!!!

So with hugs and apologies to Ron we leave for home. We stop once to eat. The Mailman does all the driving. We get back home at 2:00 in the morning.

Somehow, we fought through all the things and got it done. As a team we can do it. On my own I would have given up a few times. Many things went wrong but it all worked out. I know there is a moral there somewhere.

It went pear shaped

The Plan, part one

 

 

It seemed a simple idea. We’d rent a trailer in Wenatchee, drive to Orondo, load up the used yurt and drive to the property, unload the yurt and back home. Now, the property is about a five hour drive on a good day. Throw in some curve balls and it takes longer...a lot longer.

So, I got up early to work out, come home shower, have breakfast and pull the last minute stuff before we got on the road. It turned out that I was hustling from the time I woke up and I was barely able to fix myself a breakfast to eat in the care. While I as hustling away, the Mailman asked me to reserve a trailer. Whoa, maybe that would have been a good thing to do a day or two before. But no worries, I got one online. As we headed out of the house U-Haul called and said the trailer we wanted wouldn’t be available for the times we needed and that there weren’t any in Wenatchee. Uh oh.

I had thrust my breakfast into the Mailman’s hands to hold while I tried to get to my cell phone. Of course I missed the call but they called the Mailman on his cell phone and he set my breakfast down on the foot stool. Not a good move. Our dog was right on it. I got my breakfast away from his coned head (he had eye surgery, a whole other story) but not without messing up the stool upholstery.

We get in the car, I cram my breakfast down. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal but since the diabetes diagnosis I know I have to eat at regular times, especially after working out. I ask if the Mailman has the phone number of the guy we are buying the yurt from. Nope, turn around and back home.

Back on the road, I try to set up a trailer rental with another place. Turns out that place had closed but I was hooked up with U-Haul central. They want to know what weight our trailer hitch is set up for. What??? We had to pull over to check that out so that we could rent the size trailer we needed. Now you know the mailman is thrilled to pull over. By now my breakfast isn’t settling so well. In fact I’m feeling sick to my stomach.

Turns out our hitch is rated just fine for the trailer we need. Hallelujah! After an hour on the road and more phone calls that I ever want to make again we have a trailer lined up. Let this be a lesson. Always reserve you trailer at least two days ahead, especially on a Friday as the weekend is prime moving time. Well, duh…..should have thought of that.

Okay, we get our trailer (finally) and off to find the man with the yurt. An hour later we’re in the right area but turns out the mailman doesn’t really remember the place like he thought. Frantic phone calls ensue, of course not going through, cell phone issues. The Mailman is pulling into places and asking if they know this guy. Seriously? Really? Do I know our neighbors well enough to tell you who lives where? Nope. So why should these folks. After an hour or so of this fun I convince the Mailman that we should try and find a payphone. We go to a gas station and his cell phone works… Thank Heavens.

The guy met us at the gas station and we follow him with to his place. We load up the yurt parts, me ticking off the parts as we go, trying to make sure everything is there. As it is, it just fit on the trailer. By now it is three in the afternoon and we’ve been on the road since 8:30 am. There is at least another 2 1/2 hours of driving to get to the property. So much for unloading in daylight. We head out to the property and are stopped by a policeman. One of our headlights is out. Great. At least we have the spare bulb in the car because when we had to replace the other one a few weeks ago, I convinced the Mailman not to change both because why fix something that isn’t broken. Lesson two: change both the headlight bulbs at the same time. They will bulb out close together. Might as well get it done.

I'll continue with the rest tomorrow.  Promise.

 

As you can tell, I didn't proofread my last blog. I certainly should have for it is littered with typos. Many apologies for all the errors but I trust you, my reader to be bright enough to know what I meant, of course, unless my typos are worse than I thought.

I know I've been quiet for a bit. Again. Well, life keeps me playing balancing acts and I don't what to bum you all out when I'm not feeling so perky. And I don't want you all to think I'm feeling sorry for my self, even though I probably am, when things aren't going so great.

My latest bump in the road came as news from my doctor. I am diabetic, tyoe 2. And so far no medicine but I am testing my blood twice a day. And I am watching what I eat, most of the time. And I do keep a food journal, most of the time. But I do faithfully record my blood glucose levels every time. I've lost weight and I'm eating healthy food most of the time. i exercise a bit more. So far so good.

But...I got this book on the things you should know in your first year of diabetes. It starts out fine but then it goes quite gloomy, talking about how you can never eat any of your beloved junk food, like cake and ice cream ever, ever again. And how I should be quite depressed on learning that I'm diabetic. Excuse me? Maybe I'm farther out there than I thought but being diabetic hasn't really thrown me yet. I'll grant I'm in the early stages and not having huge drops due to meds. Or maybe my anti-depressant is much more effective than I thought. But it just is, so getting all gloomy about it isn't going to help (I so wish that I could deal with more things tha way).

And I am not going to say I can't eat anything ever again. My contrary nature will just make me crave it that mcuh more. The fobidden fruit and all that.

Anyhow, enough of that. I just wanted to let you know what was up with me.

Now I'm off back to trying to pull together class proposals. Sigh, I'm just not as focused as I used to be. It is hard to concentrate and bring it all together....but I will.

I hope...
Take care. I'll be back soon.

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I mean really awesome!
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This comes so late but thank you all for your loving support with the passing of our companion, Atlas. Already a month has gone by and of course, we still miss him greatly.
Funny how when they are no longer with you, you can forget all the times they cat walked across the top of the fence to get into the neighbor's yard (who was terrified of dogs, let alone big boy ones), or how every chance they could they'd dart out of the yard and off for a run of the neighborhood. Not that they didn't love you, but they just wanted to explore more of the world. Even the fact that you couldn't really walk them because they pulled so hard that you couldn't stand, forget walking. Or how to keep them in your yard with the 6 foot fences and safe and not getting in trouble or picked up by the pound or scare the hell out of someone, you, with had to with the heaviest of hearts, chain them. Not something you ever wanted to to. And they would break the chains, even the cable ones, until finally they got old enough to not want to climb the fences.
No, the things that stay with you are the look of their loving eyes, the contented sighs when they know that all is well and they are there, right there where they want to be ...with you. You remember all the wonderful things... the feel of their fur, the smell of their breath, the quality of their barks letting you know there was something interesting in the yard or the deep full barks warning someone to stay away, that they shouldn't be there. You remember the warmth, security and love you felt from that big, generous heart and the deep contentment it was to have him lay down next to you when camping.

You remember the love that flowed back and forth, building, between you. How they made the world just that much better by being there.

Thank you all, again for sharing this time with me. It means a lot.
You have all left imprints on my heart.

Atlas is gone now.

Blood test showed his kidneys were starting to fail and that his liver levels were elevated. To help with kidney issues normally they take an animal off of pain meds. Wasn't going to happen here. Pain meds are what kept him going at all.

So this morning, Tom and I took Atlas to be put to sleep. It's such a quick process that it is hard to grasp.

Last night Atlas killed a possum in the back yard. He hasn't done that for a while.

Now he is gone, pain-free. I'm glad he was part of our lives for as long as he was. He leaves a big space that his huge heart filled. Tom and I know it will get better but we are grieving now, as we should. He was anawesomely good dog and our loyal friend and companion.

Thank you all for your heartfelt compassion and sympathy. My heart goes out to all pet lovers who have had to release a friend. It's a hard choice but we all know when it is time.

Thanks for being there and listening.

My beloved Atlas had a bad day yesterday. He hardly ate at all and by evening he was listless and dull eyed. Wouldn't even eat home cooked treats. Later we we able to get him to eat a few liver training treats but that's not enough to keep a big guy going.
I'm going to talk to the vet today. While he is perkier today, we don't want him going through pain needlessly. We may have to let him go. I don't want to but it may be the day.

Okay, on Tuesday of this week, I tried to do a good thing. I tried to donate platelets. I've done it once before. It can take up to 1 1/2 hours to do. The take the blood out, sorting out the platelets and then returning your blood. The platelets are used a lot for cancer patients so it is kind of near to my heart, having lost both my mom and brother to cancer.
Anyhow, it didn't go so well this time. Got a burst vein in my elbow that now, two days later looks like this...