• Three

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    Periodically wandering old folders, I come across a random image of import. And such is the case today. It has been a little over five months now since Po left me, and I certainly have had my moments of missing each of the cats off and on in recent weeks. I do spend time...

    Read more →

    Moist

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    I’ve noted a slight change recently when I awake in the mornings. My eyes are moist. This morning, in a late dream, I had for some reason trekked across an unknown city to hide in a booth in a diner, only to discover that Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were in a booth next...

    Read more →

    The Hardest Surrender… Goodbye, Po

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    On June 27th, two days after putting Chayya down, I woke up with a vet appointment scheduled for Po. Little did I know I would not come home with him that day. For a period in late spring and early summer, I relished the idea that, despite Chayya and Shukriya moving on clear paths...

    Read more →

    Remembering Chayya

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    On June 25th of last month, I made the hardest visit to a vet that I had had to make up to that time. On that morning, I let go of Chayya and sent her to rest and peace. Chayya was my 15 year-old feisty fuzzball of a kitty, and she was the first...

    Read more →

    A Setback

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    It’s been a hard half-a-year here at the home front, which has doubled as a cat infirmary. I learned my fierce female fur ball, Chayya, had chronic kidney disease early on this year, only to learn a several weeks after that that her lifelong flat mate Shukriya had a tumor in his front foot,...

    Read more →

    Goodbye, Big Boy

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    When I went to bed last night, I knew I had a vet appointment in the morning for Shukriya where this was going to be the topic. Euthanasia. After several months of trying to heal an infected area on one of his paw, tests had finally revealed why it was not healing. There was...

    Read more →

    Inevitability

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    On January 4th of this year, I noticed that my oldest and tiniest cat, Chayya, was not eating, and I was already facing a vet visit for her brother-of-another-mother, who clearly had some tooth issues. I bit the bullet and took an afternoon off and went to a veterinary clinic in Rio Rancho with...

    Read more →

    Weekend Wanderings: Gallup/Zuni/Canyon de Chelly

    by  •  • 1 Comment

    Two weekends ago was supposed to be about watching balloons flying among red rocks, but the weather decided to change that. The 24th Red Rock Rally in Gallup was scheduled to occur at the same time slot it has held each year since the event kicked off- during the first weekend in December. By...

    Read more →

    Thoughts from the Island

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    I don’t post on here very often, and when I do, it’s travelogues mostly. Travelogues are safe. This writing reticence is largely because I came to a point in life where I felt that what I had to say either 1) had already been said, and most probably repeatedly, by better writers than myself,...

    Read more →

    2023 Annular Eclipse

    by  •  • 1 Comment

    Yesterday, October 14th, was Annular Eclipse Day for astrophysicists and astrophiles alike, while the bulk of us experienced it as Neato Eclipse Day. To the informed, it was a “ring of fire” eclipse, in which the sun would briefly be obscured by the moon moving in front of it for those sitting on its...

    Read more →

    Hope Beyond Grief

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    I took some time at lunch today to watch the online feed of the memorial service for Tim Keller, who passed several weeks ago from cancer. Keller, founder and lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, was a giant in evangelical circles, if nothing more for his constant Christocentric approach to church and...

    Read more →

    Birthday Bolt: Westcliffe, CO

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    On Friday, August 4th, I was able to take off from work for my birthday, and I used the day to casually drive north to visit my friend Steve up in Westcliffe. The trip would be a lot of driving, but I was up for it. Turning 55 this year, it was a suitable...

    Read more →

    Christmas in July

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    The long weekend of July 14th through July 18th was a happy reunion for our family. On Friday evening, we drove to and converged on an Airbnb lodge off of the fifth green of the golf course in Angel Fire, New Mexico, which would be our home until Tuesday morning. It was a happy...

    Read more →

    Winter of the Renaissance

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    For much of the last six months, a significant amount of my mind has gone to dealing with turbulence in our family, and more specifically, to coping with an illness and infirmities that threatened the life of my mother. In no grand and exceptional ways, this misfortune was a small gift, in that it...

    Read more →

    Under the Sorrow Moon

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    I built my house under the Sorrow Moon In the season of shadows and ash Where the dell Veiled in waning willow Cloaks the cold gray earth There is no croak nor cry No bleat nor bark Where the sun has left its track And daylight idles beyond the twilight And the brooks have...

    Read more →

    Kibbutz

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    Last night, I went to bed relatively early for me, at 10:30ish, after finishing my litter box chores for the cats. I often put off the litter box chores too long, mostly because I dislike the litter box chores, despite thinking that it is not fair to the cats, until I need to take...

    Read more →

    Later Things

    by  •  • 0 Comments

    I met my pal and writing chum Tammie this morning, and as we settled into our semi-monthly routine of ordering some coffees, unbundling our gear at our table at the restaurant, and chatting a few about the recent events in our lives, our talk touched on current life and relationships, and my mind revisited...

    Read more →