Getting to it

Monday, June 3, 2008

* Getting to it...

It's been almost 3 months since Mama passed. It's taken me this long to even think about going through her things. Mama lived with us since 1994 and even though she was in an Assisted Living Facility the last year and a half, it's amazing how much stuff she had... clothes (Mama loved clothes!... her closets upstairs look like she kept clothes from years back - she and I counted her blouses one day, there were over 200), tons of costume jewelry, shoes she hadn't worn in years, purses, little things she picked up here and there,... and bills and letters and pictures that filled her drawers and boxes.

It feels odd, this going through another's personal belongings... like you're intruding on their privacy... which you are. If I hadn't previously felt this strangeness when my brother passed in 2000... going through his home and sorting through his belongings... I would be having an even harder time now.

Maybe it's still too soon. It hurts to think about the last few months. Mama had a hard time from November through March, fighting Pneumonia and Alzheimer's. I guess living to be 94 and not having any other debilitating illness is amazing, but it's still awful to watch someone you love suffer... even for a relatively short time. Mama always ralied. I guess I figured that she's somehow pull through this time also. So it was a surprise when she didn't.

And it's a bittersweet time because I'm glad for her that the suffering is over, that she's with my dad,sister, and brother in a better place... but... it's still hard to accept.

I started this on Monday. Didn't finish. Couldn't. Now it's Sunday, June 8th already. Guess I need to finish it and get it posted. This week has been a bit odd. Guess in some ways it's been good. I've started writing again. Spent a good bit of this weekend finishing a story. It feels good. I'd almost forgotten how good it feels.








Oh, I do have a funny story to tell. It's about our cats. This weekend we were shopping. At one grocery store we pick up most of the cats' food and supplies (canned, dry, litter, litter recepticles, etc.). For 7 cats, this is quite a bit! Sometimes we pick up a few things there for ourselves - like bread and cheese (the rest we get at Central Market as we try to eat only fresh). We realize that being part of the older generation (60's), the clerks and others probably think it strange that we buy so much 'catfood' and so little 'people food'. I've been dying to have someone ask so I can tell them that the catfood is really good with the bread and cheese. Now this isn't the funny story.



But this is. Since the weather has gotten very hot lately - in the 90's we have been concerned with our outside cats having enough water. There's a creek in the back, but it's not uncommon for it to be dry in the summer. And there's a fountain, but the birds use it and I'm not sure it's healthy for the cats to drink where the birds bathe, etc. Anyway... we bought one of those outside water bottles that look like a 1 or 2 gallon jug over a bowl that refills itself. Should be OK.



But then we saw this inside water bowl that has a pump and the water has a filter and runs down the side of a slide and fills the bowl, circulates, and continues to do this. Well, with Ghost in the house (she's the little one with the genetic kidney problem), we worry about her bowl ever being empty as the Vet has told us that we must make sure that she always has access to water... or she could die.

Well, we bought this refilling water bowl. Julie, one of the Black and White's thought it was the coolest thing... the others basically slunk up to it on their stomachs as if it were some alien creature that had invaded the kitchen. I should have taken a picture, but was so enjoying watching their idiotic behavior that I didn't. It was hysterical to see 6 cats all converging on their stomachs very stealthfully towards a small blue bowl of running water.

Well, that's my story. Thanks for reading.

Rian