Wednesday my parent's called to tell my that Duchess was dying and that they would have to take her in on Saturday, So Bill and I made plans to go in and see her yesterday and say good bye.

Yesterday morning Mom called me, Duchess was very weak and unable to walk now, was vomiting, and had not eaten or drank anything since the morning before.

We left early and stopped by my parent's house to see her before going to finish our errands. When dad got home from work we all drove up to the animal hospital and said goodbye.

She had a good life and the vet said she was one of the oldest bassets he's ever seen, 13 years old.
She survived a tumor on her spleen which later ruptured, and lasted two more years until Lymphatic leukemia took hold.

Good bye my duchie girl, you were a good dog, and one of the coolest Bassets I ever knew.
We'll all miss you.

Tags: beyond the veil, pets
Current Mood: sad

So my aunt calls,
She has more yarn from the relative who died.

I figure, well from all I’ve gotten there can’t be much left.

WRONG!!!

So I have BOXES of yarn.
And BOXES of lace thread for crochet
And BOXES and BAGS of knitting and crochet needles.

i went through the knitting needles and grabbed the ones I needed at least one of. But there are tons left. 14", 10" DPN's and circs.
And I’m afraid to try and sort through the crochet hooks. (both normal and lace kind)

Sooo... uhhhh

Anybody need any crochet/knitting supplies?
I’m willing to ship to almost anywhere in the US.
(near by friends get first dibs, but there is A LOT of stuff)

Tags: beyond the veil, crochet, family, knitting
Current Mood: dorky

Bored, bored, bored!
I'm bored

There's nothing really good on TV, and I've watched enough headline news to have the damned spiel memorized for the day. Maybe I'll put in a move, Witches of Eastwick sounds good. Went to the calling hours of a friend of my parents that dies recently, she used to live in a house down Hailey Street and was related to out next door neighbors, the Hailey's.
I don't have much knitting for other people left to do, just have to finish Lindsay's scarf (I'm such a slacker) and start somebody else's, but I need the needles I'm using on the scarf to do them.
I really don't want to start another project for myself until I'm finished with them.

Blech.
I wanna do something but there's really not much I can do because I can't go out. I want to go shopping, maybe pick up some more knitting needles. It's such a boring Sunday afternoon.

Tags: beyond the veil, holidays, knitting
Current Mood: bored

You can tell I'm depressed, I'm crying at the littlest things lately.

Grandma accidentally left the freezer door open today after she got out the meat for tonight's meat loaf. Not wide open, just a little crack, but it was enough so that 5 hours later when I went to get my frozen meal for tonight everything was partially thawed. Last time grandma accidentally left the freezer door open we lost over $400 worth of frozen meat.
When mom found out she was not happy, you could tell by the way she acted, quick flippant movements, disgusted look, etc.

She stomped over to our house and started pawing through the old fashioned milk bottle that we use to hold our spare keys and miscellaneous stuff. She said she was looking for the key to the freezer 'I'm going to lock that bastard up.'
In the process she ended up crushing the dried yellow rose that was on Sam's wreath when we buried him. She does thing like that when she's angry, she plows through w/ out thinking and isn't careful.

When she went back next door I sat down in the living room and cried.

I began thinking, not just about the loss of expensive food at a time when our bills are piling up and my parents are working over time way to often just to stay in the red.

But about the loss of my Grandmother, this is just another sign of how old she's getting. She's moving slower now and her mind isn't as quick. And I know she means well and life is hard.
And then I think about how we lost Poppi, how she was then, and how much I miss Poppi.

Then I though about Sam's rose.
Destroyed in a moment of haste and anger. Lost. Another little memory of him gone never to be retrieved. I feel like I'm forgetting them by the loss of these reminders.
Sam was like a brother to me, we loved him so much, and now he's gone.

I'm just so sad, the loss is so much.
I don't want to loose anymore, and its all around me looking at me, laughing because I can't stop it.

Even Frisky is dying, you can see it. And it's just a big I watched him being born, he was always so proud, our biggest cat, 18 lbs, he could open the solid oak door between the houses with just his paw. And now he's a decrepit old man who can barely walk or clean himself properly.

I think about Sam taken in the prime of his life, of Poppi, who suffered so long, of grandmother who means well but sometimes just makes mistakes, and of frisky who probably isn't going to last 'till next year.

And I cry.

Tags: beyond the veil, family, food, introspection
Current Mood: sad

Went to the cemetery and took some more pictures.
Our cemetery is HUGE and I finally found the old section today, so I took tons of pics.

( cut for your enjoyment )

Tags: beyond the veil, peektures
Current Mood: artistic

Went to the cemetery again today and took some more pictures, mot many came out well... I need to walk around more and get myself a tripod. Some of the monuments are so beautiful in the cemetery, and the landscape is gorgeous.

Here are some of the better ones.
( beauty even in death )

Tags: beyond the veil, peektures
Current Mood: artistic

Mom and I took Grandma up to the Cemetery to see Poppi, and Grandpa Stone's flowers. While we were there we saw one of the herons and I took its picture! I think he was posing!



( i also took some pictures of the geese! )

Tags: beyond the veil, critters, family, peektures
Current Mood: full

We went out and put flowers on Sam's and Poppi's graves today, it was sad; Sam's grave was gross, grass and bird crap, and dirt all over it. It's like Aunt Grace and those people don't even care. And because of the wet and warm weather we've been having, Poppi's stone is growing moss in the engraved parts. So mom said she's going to go see if she can find some good marble cleaner for Sam's stone and moss killer for Poppi's. We drove by Grandpa Stone (Grandmas first husband, Floyd Welbourn, died before I was born, we would always go and take care of his grave though, and I would call it Grandpa Stone when I was little, and it stuck.) The bushes we planted are dead again (this is the third pair), the cemetery soil is too sandy for most plants, and it looks like the cemetery is suffering a blight anyways, because the shrubs they had planted are all dead too. So mom bought these beautiful white rose bushes to plant on either side and a bunch of red geraniums to put in front, and we have tons of potting soil and miracle grow to keep them alive.

I just realized how depressing this post must seem, talking about 3 dead people and their grave stones. oh well. I loved Sam he might as well have been my brother, Poppi (Grandpa Lambert, Grandma's second husband) was one of my best friends, he taught me how to play poker. And Grandpa Stone has been something the family takes care of as a whole for as long as I can remember. So these things are important.

Also, while at Brookside I realized how beautiful cemeteries can be, the old grave stones and monuments, some of them are real works of art. And Brookside has several very large duck ponds filled will all sorts of ducks, swans and geese, and a heron or two. When I was a little kid we would always take a loaf of old bread with us when we went to take care of Grandpa Stone, and feed it to the ducks when we were done. I'm thinking of someday taking my camera up there and taking pictures, it really is quite pretty.

Tags: beyond the veil, critters, family, gardening, memories, outside
Current Mood: calm