Lovelies

I'm still working my tail off and exhausted/ brain scrambled but I wanted to keep up with reporting lovely bits of each day.

Tuesday: I took the back road to work, the one that goes a long stretch through the country; I wrote about taking it home from work a few months back (before winter). Last time I wrote about driving home that route fall was only just beginning. The grass beside the road was long, vibrant green and wispy. There were unharvested fields filled with produce. Farm market stands were brimming with pumpkins. It was such a beautiful scene to drive through for 15 plus minutes.

This time, you could say that the scenery was ugly but I didn't see it as such. The fields were all brown with mud, vast open expanses of clumpy dirt. The grass lay flat beside the roadway, void of green, just yellow, brown, almost grey from still being dormant after the long winter. There were no stands of fruit, or barns wide open arrayed with produce for sale signs. Yet the acre, upon acre, upon acre of gloomy, muddy expanse was dotted all over with white seagulls and the entire vision couldn't help but evoke within me a joy, an expectation, a gleeful eagerness for the new season of life that is fast approaching. The stagnant looking, gloomy brown expanses didn't appear to my eyes as much like a void, instead I could see a brand new beginning, the very start of a wonderful overwhelmingly beautiful new season of life.

Wednesday: Also, while driving home from work, I spotted a chunky little brown figure scurrying through a blueberry field. Upon closer inspection I could see that it was a beaver. Beavers aren't the sort of animal that people in my part of the world see often. They certainly do live here but I can't remember having seen one in real life, in the wild but once before. The creature spotting was a very lovely moment in my day. I'm always thrilled to see a new or rare creature in the wild. It's just the sort of thing that helps make any day grander for me.

Thursday: I've begun to undertake the toilsome task of cutting our dog's hair again. I do it about twice a year. I started with our older guy, Bozzy. I don't remember if I ever even mentioned it here but he was diagnosed with diabetes the day before Christmas Eve. We've been giving him two shots of insulin a day since then and he's on a strict feeding regime. It was a relief to know that he wasn't enduring kidney failure (the very thing that took my beloved 13 year old cat Deedee in November) but it was a harsh reminder that he is getting rather old. I was probably glum about the diagnosis for two months, just feeling the dreaded grim reaper knocking at his door. The life span of a dog or cat is way too short. They're given so much of our hearts and then to have to say good-bye after a relatively short time, it's awful!

But he is doing really well, aside from the fact that the insulin will make him go blind. His eyes are starting to get foggy and that does break my heart a little. I do know that his time will be much shorter then I'd like. However for now I'm very happy that he's still with us and I'm not so mopey about the inevitable as I was in December/ January. Well, I started to cut his hair on Thursday. He enjoys (mostly) getting his hair cut. He likes the affection and the attention. He was standing there super well behaved, patient, and proper while I was trimming. The thought crossed my mind that "this could be the last time." But it wasn't a sad thought. This thought was lovely because I realized that I was getting to trim his hair one more time (possibly more). That if this was the last it was also in a way, one more because we could have lost him in December. A slightly dreaded task (it hurts my back quite a bit to trim the dog's hair) became special.