Moving Forward

Stuff

Again, it’s been a while since I posted.  Life seems to be moving along faster than I can ponder and post about it.

I have lost 8 pounds since I last posted, with much more to go, but a nice little start. 

The more things change the more they stay the same.  Those that were crazy, still are (I know, everyone is shocked).  The great news is that I don’t think about them much at all and when I do, I have no feelings about it.  Maybe that’s bad, because I am tied into their family by marriage, but I feel so much better about myself and my life that I cannot and will not go back to that emotional place.  I just hope that my worry and anger does not return when Lake Denial visits next, which by my figuring should be in May for a 40th Birthday Party.  I can’t wait to see who shows up to that one!  It should be good comedy, from which I will be leaving early since I don’t need that kind of stupidity in my life.

The new dog, Tucker, is working out really well.  He is a great addition to our family.  I am so glad because I didn’t want Cullen to grow up without a dog.

There is yet another Canadian federal election this year.  Oh Boy, I can’t wait to hear what all the candidates have to say (insert sarcastic scoff)!  Could there be just one candidate that can rise above the mediocrity some time?  Could just one of the parties learn how to properly manage the funds they have been given the responsibility of overseeing, before they ask for more money?

In the Meantime and In Between Time

It’s time for me to refocus.  I have of late been spending too much time worrying about the status of another family, and hoping that everything works out well.  I cannot do much more than I already am, and I think it is taking up too much space in my brain.  This issue is not for me to solve.  I do not give unsolicited advice, but I will throw out a supportive suggestion here and there, when the subject is brought up by the other party.  I then hope that a solution is found, whether or not it is the one I suggested.  One cannot force the horse to drink the water to which it’s led.

Today I am a little sore.  I had a cystoscopy and am just a might tender.  No soccer for me this evening.  Here’s to hoping that the Dr. will be able to help me stop peeing every time I sneeze, cough, sprint, jog et cetera.  It has been fairly embarrassing for approximately 5 years now and I am quite finished with the whole thing.

On the up side, I am starting to feel like myself again.  Haven’t felt this way for an extended period of time since I had my tubes tied (clamped).  Maybe my hormones are finally filling the void on their own.  Yeah!!

Started eating better after the new year and it is going fairly well, except for the last 2-3 days.  Back on track tomorrow. 

I have been working like a fiend on this new photobook to attempt to finish it in time for a sale, only to find out that the sale wouldn’t apply to me unless I wanted to order two of the same book.  At least now I have time to tweak it while I wait for a sale that does apply to me.

We have had a blast with the new gadget that we got for Christmas.  We got a Seagate Goflex media player.  It plays every type of media file I could ever download, straight from external hard drive, no more converting and no more discs!  When and if I am ever inclined, it will work via wireless router to the computer and onto the Internet for YouTube and the like.  Love it!!

Imported and Ready to Go

I have now imported all of my posts and comments to this new site.  I only have to figure out something to do with all the photo and book library on VOX.  Ready to fly out into new territory and am currently enjoying the look and feel of the new site. 

Still busy around here.  Cullen is loving school, enjoying Karate with Uncle Mark and next week he starts skating. 

On the weekend we went Apple picking with DW, S & D W, PK, and A & B B.  It was fun, but busy.  It is further proof that I shall never open a daycare.  I do not have the patience or energy to deal with that kind of chaos. 

We went to my soccer team party on Sunday afternoon and it was good fun.  Great to see everyone in non-soccer gear.  As usual, everyone looks better with their regular clothes on instead of soccer shorts and shin pads.  You can hear everyone saying how good each other looks.  It’s funny, did they just think we were beasts all of the time?

I lost another 3 pounds and am hoping to continue the trend over the next few months and at some point be back to myself.

Cullen and I went skating this morning with his friend.  It was frustrating at first because he had to remember how and was about to give up.  Thank goodness for his friend’s mom, she was able to get Cullen to open his mind and allow some instruction in.  When he gets like that, I cannot get through to him until he lets go of his frustration.  By the end of the skate he was actually pushing off with one leg and gliding further.  I hope that by the end of this year’s powerskating lessons he will be ready for hockey next year.  That will be much more fun for him, I think.  He’s taken a real shine to street hockey lately.

Work is back to the “norm”.  Funny that normal includes a range of different student issues each year.  These issues are completely unique, but totally similar every year.  It’s nearly predictable except for the unique little twists on each situation.

I can’t wait for the next discount day on photobooks.  Volume 2 of the Wilson Year in Pics ’10 is ready to order.  I decided that Cullen’s first day in school would be the best place to start Volume 3 so that Christmas wouldn’t be a tiny volume all by itself.

Our new niece has changed quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, she’s been growing and her face is beginning to distinguish itself and develop past, yep that’s a newborn face.  Her eyelashes are quite long and curled, hope she continues to be that lucky for the rest of her life.  I wouldn’t mind them myself.

Moving to…

I am currently in the process of moving my blog forward to Moving Forward  It's on blog.com now.  I may move again if I find that I don't enjoy it, but we shall see.  It has the privacy settings that I like and I like the look of it so far.

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Days Go By

It seems like life can slip right past me while I'm busy doing random stuff.

I finally finished "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle".  I am glad that I read it, but found myself a little bit angered by the ending.  I know I was hoping for the unrealistic.  I really wanted it to tie up nice and neatly, with the "bad guy" getting what he deserved (which he did) and the "good guy" triumphant.  I may go back and re-read the last 20 pages in order to fully appreciate the implications of the ending on the other layers of the story.

I managed to get the house relatively clean, with some nagging laundry issues (what's new?  It never ends).  I wish I had a Folding God-mother.  I so hate folding clothes.  I have no problem laundering, my problem is that I despise folding so much that I put it off far too long.  Why should I fold something that is going to be unfolded and worn within 24 hours or even 48?  It just seems so pointless and hopeless.

End of the season wrap up tournament for Sista's in Soccer is here on the weekend.  I can't believe how quickly the summer went.  Hopoing to kick a little butt, yet disappointed that there will only be 3 games.  Don't get me wrong, the 6 we played last year was a little much, I just was hoping for another game or so.

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of this year's first volume of our family yearbook.  I placed the order on Tuesday and the company emailed that the order was shipped out yesterday.  I patiently waited for the 30% off photobooks day and love that my version of scrap booking comes out to $1.15 per page.  Non-digital scrapping is upwards of $4.00 per page.  I am also very happy that I decided to do the family year in pics and not just do books for special occasions.  It is well worth it and allows me to do something with the pics other than slide shows.  I should do another one of those, since I haven't done one since Cullen was 2-ish.

Friday Drabble

The blank stare was infuriating.  Why won't he answer any questions?  A simple yes or no would suffice.  There needn't be a power struggle.  I'd be happy to assist him with whatever he needs.  There was a cool breeze.  It was quite welcome considering the stifling heat and humidity engulfing us under the little maple tree.  As the stand off continued, I glanced back and forth quickly between the child on the equipment and the one causing my blood to boil.  He was seated in his red wagon and I was crouched next to him waiting for him to respond before I unleashed him into the park.  As I rephrased the question and had him repeat that he would not throw the stones at the park, I realized that for all the adult sounding words, phrases and sentences that come from his mouth, he doesn't understand much of what he is parrotting.  My frustration subsided and I vowed to remind myself in the future that he doesn't understand, he's just mimicking.  He ran off to the slide with care free abandon, going as fast as his little legs would carry him.

Hodge Podge

Well, I asked Cullen about the Ipod in the morning and he had no idea what I was talking about and suggested that it must have fallen behind the nightstand, exactly where Barry & I both looked first.  He's a funny little guy, he was sure to tell me that he had no idea because he must have been no where near it when it happened.  After I told him I found it in the couch, I asked him if he saw anyone with it in the living room and he had no idea.  It therefore must have been his little buddy.  All's well that ends well and I made sure to tell them not to play in our room when little buddy came over a day or so ago.

Barry ran into the people that bought our old house from us today at the Post office and they were there turning in mail that belonged to us.  What an amazing coincidence!  That mail would have been put in the dead category, since our forwarding time ended quite a while ago.  In it were two statements for a credit card that I thought I cancelled when we moved.  There was no balance, thankfully, but yikes that is still fairly dangerous to continue to have going to the wrong address, not to mention hanging around my credit record.  I must be sure to call the card company immediately, although I really don't know how I am going to identify myself, since I do not even have the card anymore.  We'll see.

I am definitely down 10 pounds since the start of the progesterone and I really haven't been trying.  I also have a better outlook on life and am getting much better sleep (aside from the other night of course).  I wish I would have known sooner, but at least I know now.

Swimming for Cullen, baseball for Barry and our nieces as well, soccer for me and it's our nephew's 2nd birthday.  Quite a busy weekend, but it should be fun.  I always love watching Cullen at swim lessons, he absolutely loves swimming.

Awake

It's 2:30 AM and I am awake.  I slept from 10:30 PM until 1:30 AM.  Why would I wake up and stay up?  Well, before I went to sleep I was reading.  When I have a Tuesday night read, sometimes I like to enjoy some background tunes from my IPOD.  Tonight I was dumbfounded when I went to the location of my IPOD spot (the place where it lives) and it was not there.  I looked in the other two places it could possibly be, but it was not there either.  I decided I was burning valuable reading time and would ask Barry when he came home, since he may have seen it.  He got home from hockey around 1:15 AM and I awoke and asked him if he had seen it and he had the same thoughts on location that I had.

Suddenly I remembered that Cullen's little buddy had been over to play the other day.  This particular little buddy doesn't pay much attention to where he drops things he is no longer interested in.  I asked Barry if Cullen & Little Buddy were in our room during their play.  He said he didn't think so, but maybe.  Since Barry had now re-checked all the places that I had checked and came up with the same result, I started to get a little anxious.  Nano's are neither cheap nor large in size, it could be any where.

Barry decided we would find it in the morning and went to sleep.  I laid there getting more and more nervous about ever finding it's location. 

I had no doubt that it was in the house somewhere since little buddy is not a clepto, just doesn't have a sense of this isn't a toy, I should put this back where I found it.  To be fair, Cullen isn't fabulous at putting his toys away, but he does seem to have a sense of what isn't really a toy and A/ doesn't tend to play with things that aren't toys and B/ Generally puts things that aren't toys back where they should be.  He doesn't leave clothes in the middle of random rooms, doesn't just drop garbage where ever he stands (a lot of little kids do this if they don't hand it to their parent), he puts his empty juice cups either on the kitchen counter or on the little end table next to the couch (not toppled over in the middle of the room dripping whatever liquid), and when he is finished eating he goes straight to the bathroom to wash without being asked (he has ALWAYS done this and it was definitely NOT because we trained him, it's just his little personality).  Cullen has never thus far attempted to play with our IPODs.  He has asked to hear this or that song, has asked to see the album artwork, but never tried to play with them himself.  He was told when he was first shown them that they are not toys and not for him to touch, if he wanted to see or hear something he should just ask and we will do it.  He was never the kid that played with the remote or the car keys or a phone (cordless or cellular).  When he was told that those are things for adults to use and that if he messes with them he could break or damage them, he just didn't touch them.  He is 4 and still asks me to change the TV channel and has not dialed any bizarre foreign phone numbers.

So, I figure that little buddy has picked up the IPOD to investigate and or play with it and has most likely dropped it where ever he was when he lost interest and that it could literally be in ANY dark corner, underneath anything.  The prospect of finding it in a timely fashion was spiking my anxiety, so I started searching.  I began in the office where Cullen's upstairs toys are.  I didn't move anything I just took a look ( I didn't want to wake the house up).  I then moved to the kitchen and kept looking underneath as well as around furniture.  In the living room I decided that if it was in the couch I had better start looking now and pray that it didn't go down the back or the sides, since I don't know if I would ever have really been able to find it then.  I lifted the first two cushions to no avail, but as I lifted the last cushion, there it was.  I couldn't believe how lucky I was that it hadn't gone down into the couch abyss and that I had actually only spent 15 minutes looking for it.  It was total luck that I chose to search the couch cushions before heading downstairs.

I have since been on an adrenaline rush and could not go back to sleep.  Starting to feel sleepy now though.  Tomorrow I will ask Cullen if he has seen my IPOD and then he will either rat on himself (or his little buddy) about playing with it or maybe he didn't even know his little buddy had it, we shall see.  To get the most honest result I will just inquire  without accusing or being angry.  He'll just tell me about the last time he saw it.  I can just hear him now "Well, we (or I or little buddy) were just doing XYZ with it and then I don't know what happened after that."  It should be interesting.

Witnessed another idiot driver on Walker Rd. on Sunday.  Full on reading a book, not notes or a page or a letter.  This guy had what looked like a novel cracked open across the steering wheel and was holding it with his thumbs while driving. 

The new table arrived this…

The new table arrived this morning.  It's bigger than I imagined, as usual when I try to pick out furniture.  It still definitely works though and it looks very nice too I might add.

I went to Lowes and a couple of other places on Friday and I found the main and accent tile that I definitely want to use to finish the bar area.  Barry liked them too, so as soon as we're ready, we know what to go get.  I am super geeked about it, I love the combo I found.

So tired today.  I am not sure why, but my eyes have felt so heavy all day and I am definitely grumpy.  Trying to get to bed early this evening and maybe that will solve it.

How Does One….?

How does one….

A:  Get to the age of 40 something and not know what a cricket looks like?  To the point that you are asking random strangers since you are about to freak out, thus likely freaking out your child.  Then she says, oh I feel better now, are you sure?  I respond Yep, black, shiny kind of like a grass hopper but not – cricket.

B:  Drive with their foot out the window?  I have seen many people in the passenger's seat with their foot out the window.  I have even done that one myself in younger years.  What I had never before seen was the driver of an older style van driving down Walker Rd. (Windsor) with their foot out their window.  How can one possibly have their best reaction in potential disaster if they first have to attempt to pull their foot into the car so they don't get ripped in half?  Oh how I wish I would've snapped a cell phone pic of that, but I was also driving and therefore not willing to put myself in danger to get a pic.

Today was another good day.  I purchased a counter height pub table with 4 chairs.  It's espresso finish, matching the rest of the basement furnishings and it was 40% off.  We ended up investing a little more than we planned, but we got a much higher quality item for it.  It's kind of like a pedestal mounting with a shelf and cupboard door storage under the table top.  Now, if we could just get to laying the infloor heat and tiling that would be a great accomplishment.  I believe that is on the fall agenda, with potlights and drop ceiling not far behind.

Unfortunately

Last night's scheduled read was postponed due to a severe headache.  It was so bad that I still had it at half strength when I woke up this morning.  I even had to move to the couch in the middle of the night because of discomfort and not wanting to keep Barry awake.  Maybe it has something to do with all the recent jump in humidity.  Last week wasn't quite as humid, but this week, YIKES!

Soccer tonight and not looking forward to exercising in this heat & humidity.  It seems like the weather is like this every Wednesday.  That's good for the weekend activities, but not so much for the Wednesday night league.

I guess I'll drink lots of water and plod my way through it.  There was a girl on another team on Sunday that had to be attended to by ambulance.  From what I gather they didn't have any substitutions on the bench and she became over-heated.  That's why I am definitely attending this evening.  I wouldn't want the team to have to play in that position.

A Good Day

Having a pretty god day today.  Yesterday I was able to vacuum and steam mop the whole house and clean both bathrooms.  Phew!  I really enjoy getting something accomplished that I actually planned to do, it's so infrequent lately.  Yesterday's work left today open so Cullen & I ended up in Essex hanging out with SGW while his mother and sister went to the clinic.

It was a pretty good day and when we got home the day got better.  My cousin Dana and her 2 boys went to Alberta for vacation and sent a package to us for Cullen.  It contained a book, some stickers, pamphlets, a lapel pin, and dino crayons all from the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller.  She & I had been talking at our Uncle's birthday party and I was telling her about our plans for trips this summer and that we were planing a trip next summer to the Royal Tyrell.  Cullen is an absolute Dino nut.  Dana loves to hear things like this since she loves learning and science.  She has her doctorate in entemology (bugs, specifically Marshland bugs).  He thinks the package and it's contents are "super cool" and "neat o mosquito".  He gets the last phrase from me I am afraid. I read him part of the book already.  He is such a lucky and blessed little guy to have people send him things while they are away.

He is a pretty cool little dude in my opinion, but I do have a bias.

He seems to be using quite a few of my phrases lately and not all of them are fabulous.  The other day he told Barry to "Put your hand over the end (of the sprinkler), for cryin' out loud"  apparently the spray was hurting his feet.  At supper today the news had come on the TV and he said "I don't have much interest of the news.  I have more interest of a Cullen show."   I don't think this one came from me.

I am pretty sure I have to buy him bigger shoes before he starts school, he went and grew again on me.  It was tough to get him into his indoor shoes at daycare the other day.

I am off to possibly read some more of Edgar Sawtelle.  I aim to finish it by the end of the month.  We'll see.

Protected: Back Again

Tidbits

Been busy as usual. This week is our son's last week of soccer and this swimming session.  He'll start back at swimming lessons in a couple of weeks.

I have recent knowledge of some interesting stupidity, but not juicy enough that it can't wait.  What's done is done.

Barry just got back from a 5 day golfing trip with his brother and 25 other guys.  They rented 3 condos nearly adjacent to two courses.  Sounds like they had fun and happy father's day to him. 

The wind turbine allotted to my mom & dad's property has recently made great visible strides towards completion.  It's tower is complete halfway up.  They now await the use of an even larger crane to finish the top half that includes the blades.  It is pretty cool to see and we took numerous pics thus far.  Mom wants me to make a photobook of it.  I'm thinking that maybe this project will be suitable to try out the soft cover type book.  We'll see.

Note to neighbours everywhere:  Don't be inattentive or careless when applying substances like round up to the weeds in your driveway.  I don't know what the neighbour lady did when she sprayed their driveway weeds, but we now have 2-3 dying patches of grass on our front lawn in large (1m) half oval shapes (really? she couldn't even apply it in a straight path?!).  It's going to definitely be a sight to be seen. 

Technically it seems to currently stretch only about 1 – 1.5 feet onto our actual property, but we're the ones that maintain and actually sodded 1.5 years ago that stretch of their property that looks like it's part of our front yard.  Barry mows it, fertilizes and weed and feeds it.  I include it in watering and pull weeds from it. 

Yes, that's right ladies and gents it was a beautifully sodded and well maintained yard and the intellectually challenged woman next door decided to spray.  She sprayed while it was windy, and if I remember correctly from seeing her on the other side of their driveway when I came home, at a height that was not conducive to a focused and properly aimed stream.  I vaguely remember thinking when I saw her, I hope she was more careful than that if she did next to our lawn and maybe she was just doing the middle of the drive. 

I hadn't noticed until today after she apologized to me in the drug store.  What I was picturing when talking with her was a possibly 6 inch strip (because who doesn't spray in a straight line onlong the edge of a driveway?) right next to their drive.  I knew I should have been more concerned when she said something about her husband mentioning that it was part of their lot anyway.  Maybe they would like a bill for their portion of the sod, or perhaps they could pay us for their portion of the fence, like they said they would? 

She said she feels really bad and that she has grass seed if we want it.  At the time I said, we'll just wait and see what happens and replant it in the fall. What can you do?  Now that I see the size and shape of the ruined lawn in question, I see all kinds of wrong with her statement.  First of all, if your husband wants to mention that it's your property, then lets get technical and his lazy ass can mow it.  Second, it's late June, there is no way that grass seed will grow properly in this weather.  Third, it's all well and good to mention that it's your property, but you don't have to look at it through YOUR front window, and it doesn't look like part of your lawn.  Fourthly, John Q. Public is going to drive by and wonder what the hell did they (us) do to their (our) lawn.  She has pretty much ruined the look of our front yard single-handedly.  Fifthly, seed will take years  of overseeding to become as thick as our sod was/is AND it will NOT be the same colour. 

Before anyone gets all, you shouldn't have sodded their land in the first place you have only yourself to blame on me;  We had a conversation with them about how we were getting grass (at that point we thought seed) and did they have any garden plans for that area, did they want us to leave it alone, or would they like us to include it in our plans.  At this point I would have rather either left it bare in the first place or that she dug the grass up to put a garden of some sort there.   The other issue is that it isn't just on their property, it stretches onto ours as well.   UUUUGHHH!!!!!  Very frustrated by that this evening, but again what's done is done, I can do nothing about it but move forward.

Fun, Fun, Fun

We took Cullen to the Tiger game vs. the Yankees on Monday night at Comerica Park.  It was a blast.  It was the night that the Tigers honoured Ernie Harwell.  Ernie Harwell is the Tiger's Hall of Fame broadcaster that retired in 2002 and passed away at the age of 92 last week.  Ernie was the voice of the Tiger's for 42 years and only missed 2 games, 1 of which is was while he was in Cooper's Town being inducted to the Hall of Fame.  His voice is the one I remember my grandfather listening to when there was a game on while I was at their house.  So passed another living reminder of my grandparents.  I know that I will always have my memories, but it makes it more interesting when things jog your memory out of no where.

A good portion of the fun came from watching our son at his first MLB game.  Barry and I are actually not particularly Tiger fans, we don't dislike them or root against them, but we are Toronto Blue Jay fans.  In reality baseball is one of my least favourite sports, not enough action.  We have apparently raised a Detroit Tiger fan without even realizing it.  This reminds me again that when you don't make a decision, the universe makes one for you.  We had not attempted to make him into a Blue Jay fan, so he is now a Tiger fan due to the fact that he loves the animal and he's now been at a game. 

Cullen spent the game learning cheers and then using them, asking us different really cute questions about the game, yelling that he wanted the Yankees to get out and roaring with his new giant foam tiger paw.  His questions about the foul line were the most interesting.  We explained it to him and he asked "What happens if the ball hits the pole?" at four years old and never played any baseball before, that was his first question.  I thought that was a pretty good question for a first timer.  The fans around us were getting quite a kick out of him when he was cheering and singing and yelling at the Yankees and shouting for the Tigers to hit a home run.

Annual Superbowl Festivities

It is the morning before the Superbowl and we are expecting between 20 & 30 people over this afternoon.  How in the world is it that I have chosen now to sit down and compose a post?  Well, we did most of our set up yesterday so that leaves some down time today.  Usually I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but we also got an early start this morning which left us even more down time.  There are some things I still have to do, but they are mainly last minute items. 

I am looking forward to this afternoon and seeing people that I haven't seen in a while.  As always there are a few new comers to the party, which is always nice.  Hope everyone has a great time.  I intend to watch more of the actual game this year.  In years past I have missed a good portion of the game as well as most of the half time show for one reason or another.

Here's to a great game and good friends.

I have been working on…

I have been working on getting all the holiday pictures edited and on to the online photo album.  It is taking me quite a while.  As it turns out, getting a new camera turned me into a shutter bug.  I took even more versions of the same pic than I usually do.  I always figure I can delete the ones I don't like.  The problem is that I never delete them.  My quest for capturing the perfect pic of the moment leads to an excess of pics I am unable to choose which ones to delete. 

I am up to the New Year's eve pics now, which means there are only the New Year's day, Walking with Dinosaurs and some other randoms left.  I will definitely be posting some soon.

I do believe that this may have been the last year for a real tree.  I love the smell and the look of them, but this year was the worst year for needles dropping every where.  We cut down our own tree just 10 days before Christmas and yet the needles were all over.  Some of the branches actually became bare on the bottam.

Returns

First, a return to blogging.  Had a blast over the Christmas holidays, so many things, so little time to write.  Happy New Year everyone.  I know it's extremely belated, sorry.

Second, a return to feeling a little more upbeat.  I have been a little grumpy and teary lately, hard to pinpoint the exact reason.

Third, a return to a more regular routine.  The holidays wreak havoc on the way I organize my days.

Fourth, a return to work.  It feels good, even if we might be on strike next week.  I would like not to be in this position, but I don't know of any power I might have to stop it.  I hope that if the employer doesn't make an offer rather than an imposed contract, that the strike doesn't last longer than 1 week.  We'll see.

Fifth, a return to the gym.  Had three workouts last week and 1 already this week, today is number 2.  I don't think my issue is with going to the gym.  It is definitely with food, I just can't seem to find the magic (OK so it's not magic) motivation to keep me making the correct choices.  Hmm…..maybe emotional eating, maybe stress related, maybe somewhat hormone related.

Six, a return to computing without wasting precious time waiting for the computer to catch up to allow me to do simple things.

Seven, a return to the winter of my youth, skating on outdoor ice rinks (we used to skate on the field when it froze over), and tobogganing.

Lots of "re-beginnings" to be excited about and hope to be consistent with.

For the Big Guy

This entry is to commemorate my big lug, my fur ball, my Digger dog.  A few weeks ago now, we learned that the newspaper lady had clipped him with her car, heard him yelp, but did not see which way he went.  Enough time and searching (including my mother braking her wrist) has now passed that it seems that he will not be rejoining us in life. 

We feel very lucky that we spent time playing in the leaves with him about a week before the incident, and we have pictures of it too.  It makes me very sad to know that while we were playing in the leaves, I actually wondered if this would be his last year.  He was getting markedly slower and he was 11 years old at least.  I got him from the pound and the Vet estimated him at 1.5 years at that time.  He was a good guy to have around, he would pick up the paper from the end of the driveway in his younger years, he killed spiders on command for me, a couple of times he actually used his fabulous digging skills to help me instead of general property destruction.

Over the last month, Cullen has brought him up and spoken about him a number of times and has shed tears over him 3 or 4 times.  I find this especially touching because Digger has lived at my parents full time, except for 1.5 months this year, for the last 2 years.  When we moved we did not have a fence right away and then when we tried to bring him home A/ my dad didn't want him to come home and B/ Digger dug huge holes under the fence, since it was too high to jump, so that he could go rabbit hunting.  This probably didn't make people using the trail feel very comfortable and our neighbours were concerned for him and kept bringing him back.  Although I know he would return on his own when he was finished hunting, it's not really something that's encouraged within town limits.

He wasn't without faults, but he will nonetheless be greatly missed.

The following are some pics of Digger: