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I went for a walk this afternoon in the forest. The air was sweet with the smell of honeysuckle. The sky was overcast, so the afternoon was relatively cool with the promise of rain that never made it to the ground. Other than a couple of small snakes and skinks, there wasn’t much non-insect activity. A pileated woodpecker did stop by for a hello and a large raptor made a few wide swooping turns overhead. I couldn’t tell if it was a red shouldered or red tailed hawk, but those two are the most likely suspects. Having skipped the gym this weekend, I forced myself to go for 30 minutes when I got back to the house. I have been feeling down all day and getting to the gym was, quite surprisingly given my track record this past week, a serious struggle. I neglected to mention my impulse purchase of the Firefly complete series this morning (I think it only made one season) from the cleverly placed clearance rack at the grocery store. I never got into it when it aired, but I was intrigued by the character personalities and interactions in Serenity, so I decided to check it out.

The house is so quiet tonight. Although the ambient noise is most likely the same as it always is, perhaps it seems more quiet because it is so very quiet in my heart. I miss her so very much. I found my cheeks wet with tears off and on throughout the day. Yesterday, I learned that Henry has a tiny cartilage issue with his right kneecap. The vet said I should take him to an orthopedic specialist for advice on either physical therapy or surgery as he gets older or it develops into something uncomfortable. It is times like this that fluent pet communication would be useful. Without being able to chat over tea, I have to observe more carefully every movement for some change outside of baseline and interpret whether it is something to be concerned about or not… just like Eclair’s hip joints. My pets range from 3 (his highness, the baby) to 12 and I suppose I should be a veteran at this by now. Penny has taken a short hiatus from chewing all the wires and strings in the house into bits. Her new thing is unraveling the toilet paper on a regular basis.

I’m a bit scatterbrained at the moment. I could sleep, but since going to bed now inevitably means waking too early tomorrow, I’ll stick it out… maybe pop in another episode of Firefly.

Oh, I finally got the email notification aspect of ExpressionEngine to work for me, so if you want to be notified via email when I take a coffeebreak from being lazy and post something here, leave a comment and I’ll add your email to the tool.