musical chair

I took a multi-vitamin on Saturday.  Must've been some vitamin.  It was one of those days that you just keep getting things done and there always seems to be more time.  Or it could have been the music.  I just seem to be able to keep going when I'm listening to music.

So, while the kids built couch-forts, and just played happily, I house-cleaned the camper, then I decided to improve the feng shui of my entrance, so I raked it out, spray-painted the bird bath and set it up, then I decided to re-upholster Darby's chair.  It was a free barber's chair I got off the side of the road that I meant to re-cover but Darby had claimed it.  So, I finally put some of those feed bags to use and re-upholstered it and put it on my front porch.  (PS forgive the misalignment of all of my pictures, I don't know why they won't go where I put them, but I don't have time to figure it out right now)

i can't decide if I'll keep it this way or get different vinyl to reupholster it again, but it's fun for the moment

Then I sat there on it for a while, listening to music and watching the hummingbirds sword fight at the feeder.  Then,  I added some more fencing to the perimeter so the dog wouldn't escape, and helped Cody prime a pump to flood the field from the ditch. 

our flooded fields

oh, and speaking of feng shui, I love how right after I finished improving the flow of chi to my front door, our good friend Brandon (whom we haven't seen in over a year) breezed in, as a surprise.  Yay for improving your chi!

then we played a little badminton

the last time we played badminton together, Finn's 1st birthday party

Anyway, I've decided my funny chair is musical.  I want you to remember that music is important.  Sometimes I forget.  I've been blessed to have many music-lovers in my life.  The first of which was my dad.  A talented guy, musically, is he.  And for all of my life, even when I'm not lucky enough to hear it in person, I will hear him singing songs in my head.  I will also hear my mom sing, though always a beat behind :)  I'm like my mom in that if I like a song or album, I will listen to it over and over to the exclusion of everything else.  (lately, the Shins, and the album "The King is Dead" by the Decemberists).  I just can't get enough.  I think Cody and I kind of forgot about music for almost 7 years.  We've both recently become reacquainted.  When you have a new baby who does nothing but scream, babies you are trying to listen to in the backseat, someone who comes and says, "Mom?" every 2 minutes, it's just feels kind of pointless to try to enjoy music.  But it's not pointless.  It's important.

Most of the people I've had the best relationships with, I have been connected to somehow through music. 

There's a farmer girl I know (well, I don't know her, I read her blog) and she was recently disgusted with a post-apocolyptic book in which there was no music.  No survivors playing instruments, or singing.  I hadn't thought about it that way, but yeah.  Music is so primitive and so emotional I would think no matter what (and let's hope so) it will always remain with us.

As for now, I will sit in my chair, look out over all I have accomplished and listen to some music.

Cat Heaven

“In the dream that awakened me, you had come and taken me to a sea of stars.  The cat stood in the flowers, two ears above.”

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Yesterday morning I awoke from a sweet dream.  In it, I was with my sweet kitty, Darby.  As Cody called it, A happy cat dream.  And I woke up and started to cry.  And I stood in the shower for a long time and cried.  That dream was a sweet, sweet message to me.  My kitty is gone.  And she sent me a dream because I asked her to.  (And my dog Pixie was in it, too.  Maybe that means she’s forgiven me.  And I know she was there to make sure I knew what the dream meant.)  It was the kind of dream you don’t want to wake up from.

There are not a lot of details.  Darby was here, and then she wasn’t.  No body in the road so I don’t think she met her end by a car.  I think she met it a bit more nobly, maybe defending her land and family from a big, mean predator, like a fox.  We shall never know.  But she has been gone for over a week, and I do believe she sent me that dream.  You can think that is silly if you like, but you’ll never be able to tell me otherwise.

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2001: I was at my parents’ house for the weekend and we stopped in a PetCo.  I, of course, was not looking for a cat.  But they had the adoption cages there full of kitties.  And there was Darby.  So darn cute.  And every time I pet her she would roll into my hand so hard she would end up rolling right into her water dish, then she would jump up and shake herself off and come back to be pet again.  She did it over and over.  I had to stay an extra night so I could adopt her in the morning.  I couldn’t not bring her into my life.

The day I brought her home. December 2001.

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Darby's the one in the coat.  Charlie's the one laughing at her.

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Darby was the kind of cat who makes cat-haters like cats.  She was super-friendly.  Just a big cutie-pie.  With how friendly she was, I think she thought she was a dog.  She loved her new home here in the country and preferred being outside stalking mice and keeping an eye on her domain.  And would always, always come running for love from wherever she was when her humans would come outside.

Goodbye, sweet Darby.  You are very loved and very missed.

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Darby

2001-2012

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Camping

“Git off my mountain…”

Finn learning how to knit.My little hikersGood shootin’, Tex!We got a visit from Grandma & Grandpa on Sunday!

And finally, we have a gravesite for Fishy Monroe.  He was a good little Beta fishy.  He was well traveled and loved camping.  Turns our he wasn’t the only pet we lost this weekend, more on that later.

RIP Fishy Monroe  2009-2012

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