So sorry to hear about Clyde Holly. 17 years is a pretty good long life for a cat. We had a 22 year old that we finally had to take in to the vet. It was a very hard decision - but it would also be wrong to have them suffer needlessly no matter how hard it was for us to let go. I had to leave the room but DH held her to the end. Then we both cried in the parking lot.

Yep, hardest decision in the world that one, Holly. But we had to think of and for them at this time and not of or for ourselves. If the Clyde has arthritis and now something else as well, then you need to seek advice to see what can be done. And the answer is not always to throw money at the vet and tell him to have it fixed. Clyde's quality of life is the deciding factor. At 17 he is a very old man. He must love you and your family very much to stay around for that length of time. I hope that it is something simple like a bladder infection and which may be fixed.

Back later with the rest of the day. It's still dark out there and I have a horrible sinus feeling. Bl**dy weather.

Shad~ I agree. I am not one for heroic medical measures. Clyde and I had a long cuddle this morning and I looked right in his eyes and told him he needed to tell me when he was ready to go.
His sister Bonnie had cancer and died 2.5 years ago. She got to be in worse shape than he is now.It was hubby who told me to let her go. He was right.

Clyde is a pretty special "being". Much more than a cat. People LOVE him.He will be a big loss to many.My Grandma and Clyde were very close when I lived in the city. She will be sad. Bonnie and Clyde were my only family for a good 8-9 years.

Anyhow~ it will be as it should be.

Sorry to hear about your sweet Clyde, Holly. As it should be is the only way to look at it. They give us love and affection and all we can hope is that we make the right decision in their best interest when the time comes. People who say "It's only a cat" have never been touched by a special cat like Clyde and I feel sorry for them.

Thanks Mad.

I weighed Clyde this aft he is only 9 lbs. He used to weigh 22lbs.

This is my fav pic of all time. My two favourite people.(at the time, possibly currently )

Clyde and Grandma 12 years ago. She was ONLY 84 and Clyde was ONLY 5.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...andmaclyde.jpg

Holly, I'm so sorry to hear about your Clyde. I know we all love our pets, but once in a while there's one that is just so special, as it seems Clyde is for you. I don't know if it's possible where you live, but in some places there are vets that will come to your home when the time comes; it can be easier for the animal - and for you.

Holly I am sorry to hear about Clyde. Have had that decision to make many times and I know it's not a nice one.

Miss Shad~ I am leaving soon and forgot this is NOT a good weekend for a phone call. I will at best be home late and tired tonight from the clinics and forgot that part and the weekend is a busy one. People moving etc. It will have to be on one of your trips home. Sorry I forgot all this till I spoke with Jen while saying goodnight. Will talk soon.

Hello Carla, Mad and Happy!!
OK kids I am off to the Drs and will see you all tomorrow.
Have a great day and the start of a wonderful weekend!!!

Thank you Ladies and Bless you for caring and understanding. It means a great deal to me. Not something I have experienced much IRL. HUGS!!!

Stormy.VERY windy. It poured rain for a couple of hours last night and then the temps dropped.
It may be a quiet day for me depending on the roads. Most parents wont work.
Hubby is home. They finished a house yesterday.Usually he gets laid off for most of January and he didn’t. We are thankful.He may be off for a week which stinks considering all the cash we are putting out BUT he can finish our bathroom. It’s been over 2 years!!! It is the story of the cobblers kids having no shoes. The carpenters wife has a 1/2 renovated bathroom and stairwell.

Clyde had a very quiet day.If we can get out, hubby will take him ot the vet.

I have gained weight. I was soooo tired of paying attention all the time for almost 3 years with poor results. I finally gave up. The reality is I will gain weight easily. Much more easily than I lose it; in a VERY short period of time.
I have walked 2 night this week at 6pm before it gets dark!!
I have done yoga every night.
It is a good start.

Have a glorious day and those of you in the midst of this weather system, be safe out there.
I love my chickies!!!!

Sorry I did not get back here yesterday. The day got away from me somewhat but I achieved plenty in the house department anyway.

This business of preparing to shut the house obviously is good for the body in some areas. I seem to have managed to kose 1.5kg somewhere along the line. From where who knows but long may it stay away. There is obviously something to be said for not only having a boring refridgerator but an empty one as well.

The new doors got fitted yesterday. They don't look too bad. This morning will be a job sanding them and giving them a coat of primer/ undercoat. Next weekend, I'll be putting a top coat on them hopefully. Don't know what colour to paint the doors outside. It will need to be a gloss paint and I was thinking about a deep gold/ Ochre shade or a reddish burgundy. Suggestions as always are very welcome. Biggest problem is that I go look at the paint chips in the shops, think THIS is IT and get it home only to find the colour is completely different from what I had envisaged. !

Anyway, I still have a fair amount on the plate for the day. Miss Puss is to go to the Paws and Whiskers cattery. She'll not appreciate that. The new door keys are to be passed on to DS2 and DB2. I always hand out a set to at least two friends or family members in case I lose mine and have locked myself out (not happened yet but hey). Two others out there mean I have 2 chances of finding someone at home.

The last of the cleaning will take place today as well and I still have to pack. Tonight we are going to the Rugby in town. DB2, niece, nephew and six of nieces friends - good grief, did I really volunteer to do this? And I have to be at the airport by 7.00am tomorrow morning. Tomorrow night I am going to sleep well!

Yesterday as well as the doors, I took all the orchids and pots around to the back, fertilised and put water granules in all the pots and gave them a good water. Unless it rains they wont get watered again until next week, unless I can persuade the DB2 to do it when he comes to clear the mailbox. (He doesn't know he is going to do that either! Good onya bro.

Holly - I loved some of those dresses you put up for Madcat. I see she too has picked a couple that I had liked as well - well we often think alike Mad and I. I also love the beaded coke brown one as well. Wasn't fussy about the colour but that certainly seems to be the fashion colour of the moment. Well done Holly.
I hope that you and Clyde are having your quiet times together and thinking of the old days when you both rambled as free as the breeze. These are the thoughts to hang on to. That is a serious loss of weight.
It always amazes me how easy it is to gain weight and how hard it is to lose it. Just one chocolate bar is worth (conservatively) 300 calories. How long does it take to eat it - 3 or 5 minutes? It takes 3/4 hour on the eliptical or treadmill (at a fast pace) to burn 300 cals, and longer on the bike. Is it really worth it? Cheese is even worse and that must be my favourite food.

Mel - it's fine and I don't really have enough time for one of our put the world to rights chats anyway. We will talk in a couple of weekends or so when I have got myself back in a groove.

PW - good to hear from you. I was wondering where you had gone, but imagined you were up to your eyes in work etc. It's hard. One has to be in a special place in the mind to be able to lose and keep it off. Keep going, one step at a time - baby steps if necessary - one day at a time.

Carla - good to see you as always.

I really do have to fly. I've just realised the cattery will probably want a certificate of vaccination and I didn't get the vet to fill in madams card when she was last vaccinated. Aaah a trip to the vet on top of all this. See you.

I'd go for the reddish burgundy Shad. It's really hard to match a yellow gold - you almost need a swatch of the house color to take to the store. And then there's all kinds of subtleties like amount of natural light and fading and all that stuff that leads to an exercise in frustration when it comes to pulling the whole thing together. Wow that time went by quickly - seems like you were just finishing one contract and here you are off on another. Have a safe trip and get settled in.

Speaking of settled it, it's going to be a hunker down kind of weekend. We are due to get an ice storm. Should be starting any minute and will go all through the weekend - possibly into Monday. I hustled this week to get a newsletter out for the homeowners association because I was planning on having a meeting at my house with some of the folks tomorrow. Also was focusing on getting the house clean. I called everyone today and rescheduled the meeting to next weekend - we're not discussing anything that important that someone needs to risk life and limb to come over. So it will be a cozy weekend. I've got plenty of food and enough wood to burn in the fireplace to keep us warm for at least the weekend.

I won't be posting here as frequently. I thought alot about a comment LindaT made to Holly earlier in the week. It was something like "maybe we do too much for others so that we have an excuse not to do for ourselves." I can really relate to that - even if it's sneaky subconscious.

I've done very well getting back into a habit of getting a task or two done every night. I'm in the mid stages of the food planning and eating goals. I need a little more oomph to get things finalized and rolling. So I am looking at all I do and making sure I make time for the right things. If I can find time to watch tv, I can find time to exercise. So I will be refocusing for a while.

Heck before you know it, it will be bathing suit and shorts season. Well, maybe not for Shad. But it will for the rest of us.

Sounds like the rain is here. Time to crawl into a nice comfy bed and fall asleep to the sound of the rain. Tomorrow is Saturday morning - sleep in a little and have the entire day to do wonderful things. I love it.

Have a good weekend!

Holly I almost forgot you. The masters of dieting say that when we want something bad enough then we'll sacrifice anything to get it. Maybe you need better visualization....
without it I would have never gotten this far. Focus.

First things first, got the call from the vet and Clyde has kidney failure. All we can do is wait it out and keep him comfy.

Mel and Happy, I am in total agreement.I was thinkin' on this for a while last night. There does need to be balance. I need to find it.
I am tied to/in this house about 12 hours a day MOn-Fri. My ME time is 3FC. Jounalling keeps me sane. You are my best friends.And I am very blessed in these freindships. My family or origin has yet to acknowledge that Clyde is sick or that I am vanless. It hurts.I dont socialize very often.
Last night DS cut me to the quick.
I just vegetated from 5:30ish. What a treat.
DS crawled in bedside me. we had a good cuddle and a bit of a heart wrenching convo. Basically he said I dont spend enough time with him.It is true in some ways.I felt so sad. Part of it is home day care related.Part of it is his personality. He is intense and gets angry or upset very easily. I usually give a few tries and then give up. It has always been this way. As an infant I couldn't sit and play on the floor with him without him tackling me etc.
Part of it is my resistance. I work at it. But he is very much in my space and is always touching, climbing on me, twisting my hair.................. I tell him very clearly and calmly what is and is not okay with me. It is my body. He gets furious and acts out and gets disciplined. He is making choices. But he is sad that I dont do more with him one on one. I would love to if it was ever pleasant.

Hubby and i had a good talk about it. He was supportive.

I definitely carry the load here too as a parent. My DH was raised in the old fashioned guy way but missed being close with his Dad. He is pretty good with the kids in small amounts of time.It took a few years tho for him to get the concept of being a parent. Quite a few. I have to be very specific with what he can do and then remind him regularily.

My kids are happiest just sitting watching hockey with him and he has always tucked them in at night.


DS says he wants to do more crafts with me. The craft stuff is such a mess. None of the kids put anything away. I ask all the time. It is not my mess. I cant stand to be in there. I cleaned that room for 2 hours yesterday.He gets furious and blames me when things dont go right for him. I calmly tell him I wont do it with him when he is angry etc. He explodes. I walk away. HE runs after me screaming. He goes to his room. We talk, try agian, repeat.He also makes choices to play hockey in the basement for an hour after school. He could do stuff with me then but choses not to. He wants it all.
It reminds me a lot of hubby. Maybe a guy thing. Maybe just them.
Hubby complains he ain't gettin any but choses to stay up til midnight watching tv and then wakes me up for some action, I get pissed and it is all my fault somehow. Again it is about choices.

Anyhow. Looking for balance to keep us all happy.

Happy~ sounds like you are getting the weather system we had yesterday.

We are having a potluck starting at 2 with 5 families from the village. We have not all seen each other since the summer. There will be 12 kids and only 2 of them are girls. YIKES!!! It will be festive. Much needed by me.
Hockey at 11am.

HUGS and LOVE!!

The house is vacuumed,dishes done,dusting done,kids fed, hockey played, kids will clean up toy room, flyer for Church Pancake Supper made and printed, 2-3 hours til company comes...
still need to clean bathrooms, put leaves in DR table, make chicken/rice casserole at 3pm, bath kids

Here we are again bright and early - wel early anyway. It is now 4.50am and I am about as ready as I will ever be to get on my way to the airport. Got up at 4.00 and packed. I think I have everything. Enough to keep me going for the week anyway. I just need to finish up in the kitchen, tidy up in the lounge and make sure things are locked up inside and out.

Went to the footy last night with DB2 and the kids. Niece invited a whole raft of her footy mad friends so we had a good if somewhat noisy night. Our team finally got up to beat the locals although it was a bit hairy there for a while. We had dinner out at the pub at Indooroopilly (pan seared Tasmanian salmon on a bed of hot potato salad and tomatos with an olive tapenade) which was very nice. Nephew has taken to eating in a big way and you ought to see him shovel it down. I'd forgotten just how much teenage boys could eat!

Here's a warning to you all for when the warm weather arrives. We've been having stinking hot days for a week or so and the humidity is right up there. And I didn't drink enough for the last few days and yesterday paid the price. Sure some weight dropped off, but the resulting pain of constipation (sorry TMI) and headache is something I don't want anyone else to suffer, so drink that water. There is a fine line between too little and too much I have to say. It's hard to know where to draw the line. Better to overdo than underdo I guess.

Puss went very unwillingly to the cattery. I'm sure she will be taken good care of - the vet recommended the place - but it was hard to see her sitting in the cage and very, very frightened.

Happy - thanks for the paint advice. I'm inclining towards the red myself. Just need to go to the paintshop and see what is available. But that's not until another couple of weeks. In the meantime I need to get another undercoat done. So I still have time to think about it.
I can understand the doing too much for others. Sometimes I don't think it is 'doing' as much as sympathising with them. At times we are inclined to say 'there, there' don't fret etc etc., when what we should be saying is - 'don't talk about it, just get out there and do it'. Again it is a fine line between what should be done, and hurting peoples feelings. Hard to know exactly. Hard to know what will inspire someone and not hurt them hard.

Mel - we will chat. I'll be home most weekends I think, although it might be nice to go check out Autumn in the mountains since that is coming - although it doesn't feel like it right now. 5.15 and 27 degrees. Good luck with the tests and things. Gotta check them out just in case.

Holly - sorry to hear about Clyde. I hope he winds down quickly and quietly and without pain.
There must be times for parents and times for children. Only you know how much time you have to give. You must know the deciding factor.

Okay - time to put the show on the road. to all the others not previously mentioned. I gotta roll. See you next week.