Instead, you find that while you were preoccupied with your own personal problems, the world flowed on around and without you and now you have to swim to catch up.
The last puppy left us on Saturday evening. We enjoyed a brief high and then spent Sunday in shell-shocked silence, only venturing out for a morning coffee and, later, dinner at my parents' house.
Today we stepped back out into the stream. And it's like paddling a canoe up the Saint John River during flood season. We have cleaning and taxes to do; nine weeks of bills to pay; lawns to rake and mow; dogs to exercise, train, and fix; the list goes on and on.
And we're moving. In 3 weeks.
Not far, mind you. In fact, the GPS coordinates will remain identical - as will our street address. We're moving up. Our tenants gave us their month's notice at the beginning of June. I can't blame them - they weren't the ones who adopted two intact dogs and expected everything to be all hunky-dory. We debated posting the apartment on Kijiji and renting it again, but the profit margin is slim after the extra utilities are paid, and we so desperately miss the sun. In almost four years of marriage, we have never lived in a well-lit space, so we decided it was time to give it a try. If it doesn't work, we can always trundle our stuff back down to the basement where we'll live in a damp, sunless pit for another four years.
Just kidding. Sort of.
Of course, moving upstairs is not without its challenges. Library workers in ASD-W don't exactly get paid during summer vacation. So in addition to claiming EI for the first time ever, I'll be trying to build a career out of pencils and paintbrushes - neither of which I have actually held during the last two months.
My first project is due on June 19th - a 30x40 piece for the Isaac's Way Art Auction. Then I have a few long-overdue pieces that need to be finished for friends and family, as well as a few long-term projects, all of which need to be completed in and around as-of-yet-non-existent work that will actually bring in a small but steady income.
It's a gamble. But I'm taking it.
Of course, the furry side of life isn't over just because the pups have all left for their new families. Poor Sammers lost his manhood today. I have never actually seen a dog sob until this afternoon when Sam mourned the loss of that which will never be his again.
Moreover, just because the "factories" are gone doesn't mean the "swimmers" are too. He's primed and loaded for another month, so we got Kia's spay bumped up to next Monday. I am not sure whether she's in heat or whether she just had a UTI, so the vet recommended collecting a urine sample.
Which I did.
Quite skillfully I might add. As Kia squatted beside her favorite bush, I deftly held a zip-lock bag underneath. I got a good quarter-cup and didn't even get my fingers wet. The outside of the bag stayed as dry as the Sahara.
After all the chaos of the last few months, that one perfect bag of urine represented a personal triumph. Its apple-juice-yellow glinted in the sunlight and promised better things to come.
There are many things I cannot do:
- Travel backwards in time
- Play the violin
- Predict whether my summer gamble will pay off
- Leave a carton of ice-cream untouched in my freezer for more than a day
- Finish Treego's black course without sobbing like a little girl
But I can catch pee like a boss.
I'm so glad to hear that you're moving to the land of sunshine!!! -Blayre
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