At least another four inches of snow fell last night, the snow ploughs were out early clearing the road outside our house. I donned my artic gear and started up the snow blower. I find it fun, although when it blows back it’s not so enjoyable.
I also had to scrape the snow from the roof light above the kitchen. Luckily I had a long rake especially for the job, but with an aluminium handle, without gloves would be dangerous.
So once the cold work was done I did some work in the garage, yes it was cold in there, but sitting on the heater helped as I sanded six drawers and repaired the side panel.
The little colony of birds that live in the holley bush went crazy when Kelli took out seed, as we had breakfast they were flying back and forth feeding their little bodies.
We had a day agreed to view our little puppy, well there are two in the race, I said they should fight to the death, but that wasn’t well received.
So there is a tan or black one to choose from, Kelli being very decisive could decide, so she was getting advice from various friends.
I’m sure we will take the dark one, then it will be similar to Dharma’s colouring, that would help me distinguish who is who.
We might have found our next puppy. Kelli has been on the case, and found several animal shelters, and a web site that allowed private breeders to sell with less restrictions.
This breeders person had seven puppies, five male and two female, Kelli wanted one of the females, but despite several messages she got no reply. The animal sanctuary close to Fennville had two puppies that stole her heart, and luckily she was invited to see them and check how Phoebe responded to them, so that is promising.
It was snowing all day, I cancelled the recording session with Chris mainly because Kelli had a bad night, and because of the snow.
There were things to return to Goodwill, clothes to take to Plato’s and some Amazon returns to arrange.
The loss of Dharma is still felt, there are still tears, but they are less, now the attention to the new addition and the training of a possible new little critter.
We had to be in Grand Rapids by 2.00pm, normally not a problem, but there were things we had to do first, mainly just getting the damn thing into the truck was a challenge. At seventy inches long it just fitted, then off to the post office, get petrol then head to the highway.
We got to the address in plenty of time, offloading was slightly easier because there was an extra pair of hands.
Kelli had noticed a thrift store on the way, of course she wanted to check it out.
It was called the Rustic Market thrift store, and it was huge, and popular judging by the number of cars in the carpark.
We wandered around together for a while, then I went over to the CD area to see what was on offer. I was impressed with the number of Christmas music CD’s, there must have been over a hundred all lined up on the shelf. Most of those I never heard of, but as I moved round to the other section I started looking for Kenny G discs. I found quite a few, so I moved them all together, and I decided that should be my mission whenever I visit thrift stores in the future.
Kelli just rolls her eyes as if to say, sad old git.
We did buy a small Christmas tree decoration, and when I say small it is. You could put two lights on it and that would be overcrowded.
This was because Kelli wasn’t in the mood to get the large skinny one out of the store room. I realised that we have always had mutant Christmas trees. We’ve had, fat, thin, short, tiny, and just visible, nothing normal, we are like a repository for malformed trees.
Kelli was also keeping tabs on a puppy available with the humane society, today was the day when we would find out if we had the chance to adopt it. The only thing stopping us was another person. This kept us on tender hooks most of the afternoon. We even looked around at Goodwill for a training cage, but we had no luck on that.
Later we were informed that the person had taken the puppy which disappointed Kelli, but like a dog with a bone, she kept looking. I’m sure it won’t be long before we have another tiny mouth to feed.
It felt very different this morning, it was the first time that only one dog ran out of the spare bedroom. Only one dog ran out into the garden to have a piss, only one dog eating from its bowl, and yes, we knew how difficult things would be now.
Kelli had a rough night, as I expected, I tried to get her to think of the good times that Dharma had. Grief has no constant, it hits at the smallest reminder, then tears flow.
Normally after their breakfast Dharma would jump up on the sofa and sit next to me as I read the news, or listen to a podcast, her heavy breathing was the background sounds that we were used to. I even respectfully left the space she occupied, maybe feeling that the time was not right to invade the territory that used to be hers.
Only Phoebe came and sat under the table as we ate breakfast, they both used to wait for the crumbs to fall on to the floor, usually on my side.
Everything was unfamiliar, how would we get through the day? The answer was to throw ourselves into some jobs, I had a cedar chest to paint, Kelli started calling the local humane society to see if there were any puppies available. Excitedly there was one being fostered in Holland, but other people were first in line, but that didn’t stop her. She filled out the necessary paperwork, and from that was approved to adopt an animal from that kennel.
Now there is the wait to see if the other interested party takes her.
I managed to do a number of things in the garage, and we even managed to sell the long buffet to a person in Grand Rapids, that was a positive for the day.
We took Phoebe for a walk this evening, I was the one with Dharma’s lead, but now I was redundant, I was reduced to carrying the poo bag.
It was a dark day in Holland, and this time it wasn’t the weather.
Dharma, our old girl, took her trip across the rainbow bridge, to become a memory.
She had some sort of turn last night, becoming shaky on her legs. This morning when I let her out into the garden she was slow, and unsteady.
When I had set out their food, and went to let them back in, Dharma had ventured further into the garden, but looked lost and confused as if she didn’t know where to go, she had to be carried back into the house. Although she ate her food, there were more things going on, especially her eyes.
Kelli noticed that they were twitching constantly, that was not normal, so she contacted the vet.
There were several possibilities, none of them good, so she made an appointment in the afternoon.
As the fateful time approached, we were joined by Cameron and Greer, the emotion was growing.
Greer, along with her ex husband Dylan, we drove to the vet. Dharma was panting continuously, her confused state was stressing for her.
We were led to a small room, the same one that we used last week. In that time since the last visit the mood had changed, gone was the hope for improvement, now we had to play god.
The vet checked her over and explained what she might be experiencing. She believed that everything was spinning in her head leading to her confusion.
We had time to discuss what should be done, a very difficult time and an awful decision to made.
A sedative was administered, Dharma slowly sank into a restful position, this was too much for Kelli and Greer, they both sobbed openly.
Both Dylan and myself felt the sadness and our eyes filled with tears.
When the final drug was injected there was no going back, as her heart slowed, the atmosphere in this small room was heavy, so many tears had been shed, I tried to hold it together, but when Kelli patted Dharma on the back she said “Night, night Dharma” I couldn’t take it any more, my eyes filled up, and my nose was blocked. I searched in my pockets for something to wipe my eyes and blow my nose, all I had was a piece of shop towel, very old and well used, but I didn’t care.
Damn emotion! That was it, we had played our part, we had helped her find final peace, but it didn’t feel good, time will heal us, Phoebe, will sense the difference, and we will move on.
The drive home was surreal, no words were spoken, maybe each of us had our own thoughts, that we didn’t want to share, but they will come out one day when we speak of her, remembering her character.
I will remember her sitting next to me on the sofa in the evening watching television, when the first wafts of her venting made my eyes sting, no sound other than a silent “phoot”.
As I sit here writing, I swear I can still smell it.
It was back down to the Byron Center to John the wood’s barn. I drove to his home, as usual, and he was ready.
I had every intension of finishing the chair today. All it needed was the leg frames attaching and a good sanding to get all the exposed joints nice and flush.
However, I discovered that the groove that the webbing clip fits into was too shallow, it needed to be increased by 3mm.
Now I could have used a router to cut it deeper, but I was worried that without sufficient guides the cutting might wander off and ruin the webbing attachment.
But once I make a solid guide it will be finished.
John was his old self, his eyes flashed when I poured him a cup of coffee and a slice of freshly baked pumpkin bread.
Then he went in search of his orbital sander, he looked everywhere muttering as he went. This was a really good one costing over four hundred dollars when new. He called his son and discovered that he had taken it, John was reassured that he wasn’t going crazy, and his son brought it back.
He then spent time sanding the whole frame.
I do try to keep conversations going, he forgets a lot of things, and he knows he does, and I feel the frustration he has. Sometimes simple things like making sure the plug is full engaged in the outlet.
I forget things, but I have learned to carry a notebook, and I’ve encouraged him to do the same, maybe I will get him one for Christmas.
The weather people had warned of severe storms throughout Michigan, but so far nothing has happened, it was raining during the early evening making the snow slushy and nasty.
Whilst I was away, Kelli baked bread and finished painting the dresser that has been parked in the living room, now we have to get pictures taken and posted.
Since Dharma’s episode last week we decided that we needed to be prepared for her to get weakened, but still wanting to go on short walks.
Kelli had the idea of a small cart that we could pull her along to save her strength. Of course when we got it and tried to lift her into it she summoned the strength to jump out of it.
After reading about similar issues that other people had, it was determined that she needed to get used to it around the house. This meant that we push it around her at different times of the day, sometimes putting food in it for her to find and eat. So when both the dogs are eating we place the cart near them, and at night when they are put to bed, the cart is in there with them. It makes us laugh every time, the only things it doesn’t do is go to the toilet with them, and, if there wasn’t snow about, I might even try that.
Of course it was food shopping day, but we also had to drive to Hudsonville to pick up the second dresser.
Things have been very slow sales wise, but we have pieces that need painting, but as it’s so cold outside to spray, we’ve brought the long buffet into the house, laid a sheet down and given it one coat of paint. We will have to do it with the cedar chest, because even more bad weather is heading our way over the next few days, series is definitely soup making weather.
Another two inches of snow fell overnight, so out with the blower to deal with it. It does look like it be with us over Christmas, the temperature is below freezing most of the time with brief glimpses of the sun during the day.
Kelli had found two dressers in Hudsonville that were free. From the pictures, they seemed in pretty good shape, so we had our breakfast, then set off. Getting them both into the truck was the subject for discussion on the journey.
When we arrived it was obvious that we would get them both in the truck.
Now, they say that a picture never lies, but the ones we saw were telling whoppers. They were not the best quality, the tall dresser had a crack across the front, how that could happen? Who knows, but it meant that we couldn’t just tart them up and sell on, that was a drag.
We loaded up the largest one and agreed to return tomorrow for the other, that will be a busy day.
Doing all this made us late for the ice cream fest, but it gave us time to chill before drive back home.
Was it a great day to do Christmas shopping? No it bloody wasn’t. It was cold, windy and there were lots of Americans about. We went down to the town, a rare thing, because Kelli wanted some incense sticks and she knew exactly where to get them. Unfortunately they didn’t sell them anymore, but whilst we were there we joined the hundreds of shoppers looking around the store. It was a nightmare, it felt like an obstacle course with displays of fair trade merchandise blocking any way through.
“ Let’s get our Christmas tree ornaments “ she said cheerily, so we waded through loads of items mainly made by five year old infants until we found appropriate pieces, mine was a black sheep and hers a rabbit.
The next stop was to look for a kitchen shop. Kelli had pulled Brenda’s name for her present.
She wanted a bread scoop because she had started baking her own bread. If the truth be known, she had made one loaf, and half of that was thrown away. This news was given to us by an anonymous person ( Kelli’s mum)
Anyway that was on the list, so one was purchased.
As it was lunch time we headed to the small eating section of the cheese shop we found a week or so ago.
Last time we were impressed with the place, but this time when my toasted sandwich arrived it got lost amongst the crumbs on the plate.
My piece of sourdough must have been the knobby on the end, I was not impressed, so I had two bowls of soup instead of one.
Then we moved on to a place called Seedlings, a place that is indescribable. It has all sorts of stuff, stuff and more stuff, and when you move that stuff there is more stuff behind. The only way to fully explain what stuff is there is, imagine piling up books, paper, fabric, clothes and small ornaments and then blowing them up.
Then take all the fragments put them in a small building and sell them to the public.
I had to buy something for Alyssa, Cameron’s girlfriend. She wanted something crafty, and some old and “cool” stuff. We left there with a pile of bits that could be considered crafty and cool.
By now we had enough, it was time to tear ourselves away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Holland and get back to a warm house and hungry dogs.
I thought it was about time that I went into the garage and did a bit of work.
There was a long buffet and a cedar chest that needed sanding, my favourite.
Actually I was enjoying it, I had got the work lights out of the storeroom, and they worked!.
The heater was on, and so was my music.
There were nine drawers that I sanded, I wore my gloves trying to avoid the cracks in the fingers that hurt like hell.
Then it was time for the cedar chest. It had seen better days, the little shelf attached to the closing strut was damaged, that will need replacing. The latch plate was also missing, that will be difficult to replace. There was some missing trim on the front that will have to be replaced, but I did the same thing on a similar one that we had a few months ago.
Dharma seems to be a bit perkier, although she sleeps a lot, there was more activity around food time, although I have said that she would run back over the rainbow bridge it there was a treat at the end of it.
We are thinking seriously about getting another dog to fill the gap when Dharma does pop her clogs. Hopefully it won’t be like the disaster we had two years ago.
Another Lifetime to go 