I've been on late summer adventures, just generally caught up in the very act of living. I am working toward staying astride the big things such as school and after school commitments, and adjusting in general to the New Year. I honestly do consider the start of the school year, and the beginning of fall to be the New Year, much more so than January 1. Things start to get serious in fall, the seasons transition and we wear sombre colors and the air gets sharp and crisp. New schedules, new goals, new foods, renewal comes in the fall.
All summer I've jotted down my blog ideas, and filled my camera with pictures of my failing garden, and food, family, and oddities. (I'll HAVE to get around to Sophia's secret world of plastic animal slavery eventually) I should not be at a loss for entertaining words once I get my work schedule back into it's groove.
My daily routine has been enhanced by adding a new family member, Clancy the cat. He's a cutie to be sure, but it was a huge, huge step for us. We love animals and pets in general, but they do limit or at the very least make traveling a little trickier than when we were able to just pack up and go, or arrange for Sophia to stay with a Grandparent and take off.....but, with the help of my Mother, and her compassion for rescuing cats, we adopted Clancy. He was left on the streets, de-clawed and neutered, with no resources and he was on the verge of starving to death. He was skin and bones, but he's doing really, really well now. Happy Clancy:
Here is Clancy that first week he was here. Pretty thin and lean in the face....too bony.
Again, this was that first week or so....
And here he is today. Not the Greatest photo I see, but he looks a lot healthier and fuller.
At the same time my Mom was asking me if we'd be interested in this stray cat that showed up at her house, my Dad informed me that it was really, finally and actually time to come and collect my "things". My things that had been stored and stashed away in a very large Quonset hut for 30 years. That's right, thirty years, in cardboard fruit boxes, lovingly wrapped in paper and fabric and I haven't seen these things since they were packed up for our move when I was about 10.5/11 years old. Oye....the memories. OYE, the mice!!! I have no words...the experience was harrowing and quite emotional. Shared a lot of laughs with my Dad, who had been dealing with many other boxes of his own, finding the same horrors and laughs and tears. Here is a sampling of one of my long lost, much anticipated boxes of memories:
Frankenbarbie...the orgy is over.
What can be said?
All part of the grand mouse scheme: Shock and Awe
Ooohhhh, the horror. The outright horror.....Honestly. Unbelievable.
So, while a very few, loyal readers may have been wondering where I've been, this is where; a trip to the far, dark side. It's been a few weeks of helping my Dad move a lot of his office stuff, which translates into just a lot of memories. It's a lifetime of work that is his life, that has been my life and a piece of my history in boxes and shelves and nooks and crannies. I've been in a time warp, touching the past and integrating it with my present.
There will be more from me, as I yearn to hunker down, and get it out, and get to work, and find my footing here in the rebirth that fall brings.
