WELL, WHAT WILL IT BE?

Will it be this?

I've always believed that meteorologists belong in Dante's Eighth Circle of Hell, the one reserved for fraudulent magicians. They just love to pander panic in the populous (that was alliteration). So first it is supposed to be snow in this part of the country, the one inch that will send us flatlanders into white knuckled fear, followed by a MONSTER of a windstorm.

We'll see. If I get all jacked up for these things they never seem to happen. If I ignore them, they do.

(I did go grocery shopping though!)

THANKSGIVING

I'm thankful for many things today. That my parents are still on this earth, that my family is relatively healthy overall, that my friends stay close and that Lili's cancer saga may be about over (knock wood).

So, not having a dogsitter of any kind, and still not able to leave the pooch alone, it was just Lili and I for Thanksgiving dinner. It actually worked out well, since my Mom wasn't feeling so good, so I made them dinner and packaged it up for Dad to retrieve. They liked most of it, and given the amount of days I spend actually cooking in a year, I'll take that as a plus.

Lili was a more difficult matter. She wanted pheasant! Pheasant, I said? But she was insistent. So we set her little table with two pheasants, a little Clos du Bois for a dry white on the side, and a candle. She was pretty damn happy, although what you can't see in the photo is the drool on the table since I was holding a treat in my mouth to make her stay still!

PS - the pheasants aren't real.

A well loved poem in honor of my friend's mother, who we buried today

Sabbatical

Someday I want to take my leave
without a ripple, after the sun turns

sour. Perhaps a night when winds
are calm and the moon turns rain.

You'll be sleeping of course, but I won't
disturb your rest, just ease through the door,

start walking West. Someone I've known
may feel an emptinesss, go to the window

and not know why. Remember that morning
robins stopped singing? Nobody noticed

till after snow. That's how I want to go.
Look for me in the shade of a willow.

Listen hard. Whatever grass says,
it speaks for me.

RELIEF

Some good news in a week of "not so much"

MAY THE ANGELS BEAR HER SAFELY OVER

I have known my oldest friend since we were six years old. We lived around the corner from each other, in a quieter time of the world.

Her mother passed over tonight. She was a stubborn fighter, a little slip of a woman, but this last struggle was just too much. She was too tired, and was ready to go.

May the Saints and Angels bear her safely over. I know they have.

HEEEEEEEERE'S 'STUBBY'

Well, here we go again...

Lili is home after challenging surgery. My partner Robert was our chauffer once again and now he has seen up close and personal how challenging Lili can be in the car. Even though she was sedated, she climbed right up and over the sedation once she saw me. (No one really believes me when I tell them this about Lili – even the vet techs). CHARGE! Lili the rhino, complete with a leg bandage clear from her toes to her elbow looking like a big yellow peg leg – GOING HOME GOING HOME GOING HOME! They didn’t want her to jump – neither did I – but HA! I warned the vet tech that as soon as I opened the hatchback she was going to leap – and she did and scrambled in on her own before either of us could get our respective arms around her to help.

So now the healing begins. And the future depends upon the pathology. Again.

For now, Stubby is sleeping. May she heal fast and well.