another picture of Gray

I posted one like this (without my partial pajama shot) on Facebook.  This was Gray's first lounge on the couch, watching t.v.

Transitions with Gray

As we said "good-bye" to Lia on Friday, we also said "welcome in" to Gray.  Since Lia was an anti-cat dog, Gray was assigned to a night time garage bed during the cold winter nights.  But, Friday night, he cautiously came inside and explored.  By Sunday, he was transitioning pretty well--finding comfort on fleece blankets on our bed or on the couch and discovering window seat views to the backyard, which was also "off limits" to him while Lia was #1 in the house.  Now, Gray is settling in and we are discovering what it is to have a life with a part-time inside cat.

 

 

Lia, our lovely dog-daughter

The dreariness of the outside winter storm mirrors the heavy hearts we have in our family as our 13 year old heeler-mix, dog-daughter Lia, fades away from us.  In the past two weeks, she has almost completely stopped eating and drinking, she cannot walk very far without her back legs collapsing and her eyes convey sadness and confusion.  We don't think she is in any pain, but her time with us is ending.  Many tears already with more to come, but, just for today, for now--a happier, recent photo with our lovely Lia: so kind, so smart, so loyal and full of life for most of her years.

Gray: en guarde!

As Gray continues to settle in to our life, we also see patterns of his behavior emerge. One consistent behavior is how he likes to stand "on guard" in the driveway. Is there such as thing as a guard cat?

Sculpted tree on King and Vine Avenues

My husband and I take a regular 1.4 mile walk from our neighborhood to Mountain Ave. and Roger Road, stopping to gaze at the Catalina Mountains and the UA Campus Farms. At the beginning and ending of our walk, we turn into a "funky Tucson" area where new urbanist homes are adjacent to quarter acre burnt adobe and brick houses. One area has this sculpted tree (and connected bench) which honors a deceased neighbor. Someone decorates the tree for the holiday season. On Valentine's Day, we stopped to enjoy this scene--and hope you will, too.

I have yet to see the snow

But with the long hanging clouds, I expect the scene tomorrow will be wonderful. On FB there was a prompt from Wise Women Write to " write someting every day" so this short write counts!

Simply Sunday

Nothing extra special about the day--cleaned house, had a friend visit and we went to the Windmill Inn (after a nice split sandwich at LIV Cafe) to enjoy The Bead Show. I had just enough time gazing at glass beads, varieties of pearls (textures and color), vintage purses, necklaces and hair pins made out of real iris flowers, hardened by acrylic. Really amazing abundance of jewelry, gems and beads. I didn't buy anything but enjoyed the sense of creativity in the experience. Then, with more leisure time and a sunny day that was cool but comfortable, we visited home decorating shops--The Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, and Williams Sonoma and, at AJ's, bought marinara sauce and pasta (imported from the Abruzzi area in Italy, where the Fonte family had its origins) for a meal later in the week. My friend wanted some specialty almonds from Trader Joe's so we stopped there and I saw the most gorgeous (and large--both parents were super tall) baby boy, about 6-8 months old. I bought some Tuscan bread which my friend and I soaked in olive oil with Italian wedding soup and salad that we made for an early dinner. For my evening-time, it is Downton Abbey (only two more episodes and then Family Crawley-withdrawal will hit me hard) and maybe some of the Grammy Awards if it's not too obnoxious of a show. I am enjoying bedtime reading of Margaret Coel's books, so I look foward to another chapter of Father John's murder-mystery sleuthing. It's simply Sunday and simple is good. Here's another slow life savor: photo shot from an early January lunch at Hacienda Del Sol and my strawberry mimosa.

Weather is changing, so am I

Sometimes the shifts come dramatically (example: broken ankle almost three years ago), sometimes in small whiffs that go unnoticed until "poof!" life is different.  That seems to have happened to my husband and me, in different ways, these past few months.  I stepped off the train of transportation-community development and boarded the slower bus of writing.  He was pushed off the full-time employment track, stradled, is still stradling, the consulting world while also exploring legislative advocating and event planning. 

Also, there are symbols that keep reappearing in the natural world that remind me of impermanence: sulphur moths in February, a rainbow in January, a newborn on the block (seen at three days old), a former childhood friend of our son's having her first child, redoing "final" financial arrangements with my almost ninety-four year old dad.  And then there is the weather: spring like in Tucson one week, frost on car windshields the next, buds appearing on a branch while hail falls.

We adjust, we change, we grow--sometimes in spite of our ego-driven wishes--but life pushes us forward, although rarely does it flow in a straight line.

Gray isn't interested in the Super Bowl

Sometimes, the life of a cat is very clear:  food, sleep, watching the cars go by.  The beginning minutes of the Super Bowl don't interest Gray in the least.