I know it's been ages since my last posting. My daughter and sister have been prompting me to post something new. I've made excuses that I didn't have anything interesting to post but it's time to face the truth, say goodbye, and move on. It's been a month since the last post and there is a reason. At the last post, I was preparing to leave for PA for a visit with Valerie, Sam and Stephanie. I had all sorts of great ideas for posts on my return. I remembered to take my camera to get photos for my post ideas. My blog helper, Becca, was spending the week with Kristine, Kent and her boyfriend, Bear.
The first four days of my visit were wonderful! Sam seemed to recognize my voice and face from his photo book. He was comfortable with me right away and we were having a great time. There was never a dull moment with Valerie and Stephanie. I arrived in PA on my best friend's birthday and got to give her a birthday hug ON THE DAY for the first time since 1988 - how cool is that?
Then things crashed down around me. My dog, Becca, had been ill when I left PA but I had taken her to the veterinarian before leaving on Friday night. The vet had treated her and expected her to recover, which she seemed to be doing. Kristine reported that she was mostly back to normal by Sunday and Monday. Becca started having symptoms again on Tuesday and Kristine took her back to the vet. More meds for the intestinal problem and she started to do better by the end of the day Tuesday. But on Wednesday morning, Kristine and Kent found that Becca had passed sometime during the night. I can't imagine how hard it was for Kristine to find Becca that way in the morning and I'm sorry she had to go through that. The call came and Valerie was the one to answer the phone. I was on the deck enjoying my morning coffee. It fell to Valerie to break the news to me. I remember little of the environmental details of the next half hour but have a very clear recollection of the words I heard and the emotions that followed. Becca was gone. She couldn't be - I needed her to be there when I got home. She was my bright spot every morning, my motivation to take a walk each day. She thought I was a rock star every time I came home from work. My car looked like it was upholstered in white fur because she went everywhere with me, except to the office. She listened to me whenever I wanted to talk. How could she be gone? She was only 5 1/2 years old.
The girls did their best to keep things cheery but the rest of the week just sort of slid by for me, as I anticipated the hard part coming up - returning home and not having Becca there. It's been a hard few weeks getting adjusted to not having her around but I'm making progress and am ready to move on, quit feeling sorry for myself and make a great effort to turn my reflections to the good memories. I want to be thankful for the years I had with Becca and lose the thoughts that keep me asking "why?"
I'm grateful that Becca was with family that week instead of being at a boarding kennel. I know she received the love she craved right up to the last. And I'm grateful to my veterinarian, Dr. Terry Stephens of Evergreen Animal Hospital. He sent me a lovely condolence letter after I returned home. He had taken the liberty of performing a necropsy on Becca because he couldn't understand why she had died. He found that her passing was not related to the intestinal problem we were treating. Becca had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This is a genetic disorder that causes sudden death and has no symptoms. Dr. Terry said that dogs with the condition often die in their sleep and that it is a quick, painless passing. I'm thankful for the blessing of knowing that Becca didn't die because of any neglected problem and I'm thankful to know that it was a peaceful passing for her. Thank you, Dr. Terry, for your time and compassion to learn this from Becca and to let me know.
So why haven't I blogged in a month? There you have it. At first I was in a funk about losing Becca. And then there was this thing we had about blogging. I've posted before about how Becca was my blog assistant. Turns out she was, more than I knew. I had a habit of getting Becca to lay by my desk while I wrote my blogs. I would give her one of her favorite treats - a retriever roll - to keep her occupied and then I would do my thing. It seemed that I just couldn't motivate my brain to write if she wasn't in her usual place.
This post is my tribute to Becca, intended to help me turn the corner and move on. Thank you, God, for the time you gave me with Becca. She was an amazing dog and a great companion.
Becca - December 2004 - September 29, 2010
There's a new sweater in a new size for Sam - just in time for the fall weather and cooler temperatures. I finished the sweater on Sunday after going back home from one week stay with Kristine & Kent.
I'm excited for this coming weekend - I'll be delivering the sweater in person! I leave for Pittsburgh at 12:55am on Friday night/Saturday morning and will be in Linesville by early Saturday afternoon. Whoohoo!! Becca doesn't get to go on this trip - she's staying home with Uncle Ken & Aunt Perla.
The slippers will also be going to PA so they can be felted and warm some cold toes.
It's been nearly three weeks since my last update and busy weeks they have been! I can't even recall all that was going on the first week and a half other than to generalize that I was having more work done on the roof finishing and outside decks. Inside, I was starting the prep work for the floors refinishing. I started the week before the refinishing with boxing up books, photo frames, etc from all the furniture in the living room, center gallery, kitchen and laundry room. There are a lot of boxes stacked in the craft room now!
On Saturday, September 11 Kristine came to help me move furniture. EVERYTHING had to be moved from the rooms that would be refinished. I started working on moving anything I could handle myself early Saturday morning and thought I had made a good dent in it. When Kristine arrived a couple hours later, she saw how much I had moved and thought that it wouldn't take long for us to finish. HA :-) It took us another six hours to empty the rooms and we only took a couple short breaks to rehydrate when we started getting light-headed.
We managed to move ALL of the furniture into the office, craft room, extra bedroom and sun room. The refrigerator would only fit through one doorway in the house - the FRONT double doors. It is now residing on the deck and is doing fine but will probably be happy to be back in the kitchen eventually. I should have taken "before" photos just for future comparison. Now that everything is moved out, I've decided there's a lot of it I don't want to put back in place. The floor refinisher says it takes 12-14 days for the finish to fully cure so it would be best to wait a week before putting the furniture back in the rooms, although we can walk on it now.
At the end of the day we were pretty tuckered out but Kristine suggested it might be a good time to paint the laundry room while it was empty. I agreed whole-heartedly and wondered why I hadn't thought of it. We planned to meet the next morning in my laundry room to tackle that task. Kristine has all the stuff for painting since she's been doing so much of it this past year. She brought all her tubs of tools down and spread the most spectacular drop cloths first thing Sunday morning. Here's a photo of me, taken by Kristine, while I was working on the second coat around one of the windows. Isn't that a cheery shade of creamy yellow?
We finished the room early Sunday afternoon and it looks great! I'm so happy she suggested we get it painted that weekend.
I went to work on Monday with my car loaded to go stay at Kent's & Kristine's house for the week. Since the floors couldn't be walked on while the work was taking place, I would only be able to access my bedroom and that wasn't going to work very well, especially with Becca needing to be fed and getting bored with being closed in one room. I had a fun week staying with Kristine & Kent and am so grateful for their offer to come and stay with them.
On Tuesday, I stopped by the house to pick up more work clothes and was able to snap a few photos from my bedroom doorway and from the front door of the floor as it was being prepped for the finish. Here's a photo of an area in the kitchen that shows "before" and "after". The previous finish had been stained but a lot of the dark color is due this being a very high traffic area:
Here are more photos of the floor partially sanded:
The edges were all finish sanded on Wednesday after I took these photos. There are three coats of polyurethane finish on the floors. I chose to leave them natural and I think the results look great with the rest of the wood colors. That was my biggest concern but I don't think it's a problem and the lighter floor color lightens up the rooms even more. Here are photos of the finished floor as it looks today. I enjoyed my week with Kristine and Kent but am happy to be back home.
The floors weren't the only thing getting a makeover this past week. Both garage doors were replaced on Tuesday. The new doors are EnergyStar with metal exteriors and high insulation count in the core. I had considered having doors with windows this time but then found out that they'd no longer be considered energy efficient and wouldn't qualify for the federal energy tax credit so I went with solid doors that have a design. Here you go:
The damage to the finish on the house isn't repaired yet. That will be done in October. I''m hopeful that I'm still on track to have all repairs completed by the end of October and then ready for a more relaxed fall and into the holiday season.
On another note, The leaves were still green when I first went up the mountain to stay with Kristine and Kent. Each day that I drove to work and then back at the end of the day I noticed more and more leaves taking on a light green cast, then a turn toward yellow. By Saturday, there were distinct patches of yellow aspen among all the evergreen trees in their valley. I took this photo on Saturday - by Sunday morning the small yellow patch on the bottom right corner had become a deep golden shade. I believe Autumn is upon us!
As soon as I finished the Yggdrasil blanket I pulled out the wool to make the felted slippers requested by Valerie for her family. It was fun to get started on a new project. The wool yarn gives it a different tactile experience and the smaller sized project is SO MUCH easier to balance on my lap.
I finished Amol's slippers on Saturday while Kristine and I were visiting at my house. We were enjoying the new back deck and a day of uplifting friendship. Kristine - you were more help than you know and I appreciate your love that let you give the day to me instead of being too busy when I needed you. When the slippers were finished, Kristine snapped this picture so I could share the funny-looking unfelted clown slippers with you. I'll post a picture of the handsome felted version as soon as all the slippers are finished.
I ran out of navy blue yarn for the last two rows on the bumper of Amol's 2nd slipper :-( Oh, well, at least this way it will be easy to tell the left from the right.
I started working on Val's slippers the same day. I completed the first one last night and will start #2 today:
The eyelash yarn knitted into the wool around the cuff should add a fun look - it picks up the purple, yellow, and a few shades in between. Kristine and I discussed the merits of adding the eyelash fur to the whole sole to create "floor dusting" slippers. Then I thought that if I also added it to the bumper around the edge, they'd be handy for cleaning the woodwork trim above the floor. But, alas, all the shag would probably make them too slippery or get caught on floor imperfections and become a tripping hazard.
A few of the tomatoes are starting to turn red!!! The first one to ripen is only about 2 inches in diameter but it's still very exciting to me. Our nights have started to turn much cooler - last night was in the 40s. I'm not expecting to see much more growth due to the cold nights but am hoping the warm days allow the fruits on the plants to ripen.
Here's a photo from Sunday, August 29 when the tomato was just getting enough color to attract attention through the leaves:
And here's a photo from today with lots more red:
I see a tomato sandwich in my future - maybe by this weekend! Yum, yum, yummy!!
On Friday, August 27, we had a visit from Jackie. She is a friend of Perla's from way back and has become a friend of the family. Jackie now lives in Atlanta and was in town for a conference. Luckily, she was able to fit in time to visit Perla & Ken. We first met Jackie a couple years ago on a Father's Day/Rodeo weekend. The first friendly thing she did was wipe up the Scrabble board with Kristine and myself! :-) We knew she was a Scrabble fan as soon as we saw the cool Scrabble t-shirt she was wearing. What a fun way to find new Scrabble players.
I had a wonderful day today. I spent it with my youngest sister, Kristine, at her home. I also had a momentous occasion while I was there. I completed the Yggdrasil blanket that I've been working on for Valerie, Amol and Sam as their house-warming gift. We paused a moment and cheered as I knitted the last stitch.
I think I spent nearly a half-hour trying to tie the last knot in a way that it would be securely finished off. That half-hour seemed a bit longer, as Kristine and I were both hungry for lunch and planning to eat as soon as that little knot was done. As it turned out, I finally called it quits for awhile and we had lunch. And a very delicious lunch it was - grilled portabella mushrooms stuffed with mozzarella cheese (seasoned with garlic and oregano,) toasted bagels with seasoned cream cheese and topped with fresh sliced tomato, and Kristine fixed a salad with blueberries. It was a lunch fit for the beautiful day we were having. I did manage to successfully tie off that little knot after lunch. So, with no more ado, here are some photos of the completed blanket.
Here's a shot of (nearly) the entire blanket. Kristine helped me spread it out on her bed. We fitted her with a safety harness and suspended her from the ceiling fan so she could get a good shot of the whole thing. I would have done it but you know my fear of heights...
This next shot is a close up of the border detail:
The blanket is large - about 6' x 6' so this last photo puts it in perspective with me standing to the side of the bed. Hi Val! Hi Amol! Hi Sam! Hi Elmo! I hope you like it :-) It's been a long but fun project, especially since I was making it for you. Thank you for all your help and encouragement, Kristine! And for the great photo work, too.
The yarn really is all one color - grass green - but the light hitting the different types of stitches adds a nice shading effect, don't you think?
