A smattering of everything

It has been exactly four weeks since I've blogged and now I have so much stuff swimming around my brain I am not sure where to start.

First, an update on The Beav. Sadly, he passed away on July 21. As he began to improve a little bit from his seizures on July 4, we took him to the vet to see if there was any hope of a recovery. The vet said it may have been a virus and a steroid shot and follow up medications could help. They did ... a little. But he never got over the drunken sort of walk that he had when he started to come out of his initial illness. And he never got back to eating or drinking much; most days David gave him water by syringe and I had to feed him by hand and that wasn't pleasant for any of us. The entire 2-1/2 weeks were sad and stressful for our family but ultimately he did die very peacefully and for that I am grateful. Like I said at the outset, we did the best we could for him and that is all we can do.

Wally, on the other hand, seems to be thriving. He didn't pay too much attention to The Beaver during his last days, but he did (and still does) a lot of yowling that I'm chalking up to some kind of confusion and/or grief. Those cats have been through a lot in the past few months, probably more than we are really aware of. So I'll deal with an otherwise-healthy, needy and affectionate cat who seems to be underfoot more often than not.

Now if only Wally and Tigger could come up with a truce. Unfortunately, that aspect of cat-drama has not abated. All ideas are welcome. I still might have to call that cat lady in Ann Arbor for advice.

Oh, and the weather has been horrendous. I love summer and I enjoy hot weather, but the humidity has been more intense lately and the mosquitoes are the absolute worst they have been in seemingly years. I had started to think that I was becoming immune to mosquito bites. Ha ... I will probably come up with the next case of West Nile Virus if I'm not careful.

On the food front, things have been interesting. For one thing, we have been eating a lot less meat in the past two months. And we are pretty much fine with that--even David, who has always been Mr. Carnivore. But in addition to meats being off my radar, I'm starting to look at everything else in the grocery store with a rather large dollop of suspicion. And I'm not just talking about my local market, which I have always sworn is simply the last stop for the produce truck. Things are not a whole lot better when I go to Trader Joe's or Plum Market. It's a little unsettling as I wonder what's going to happen when the farmers' market fare dries up this fall.

Will I starve? I doubt it. But starting to look seriously at everything I eat is ... well, serious stuff. And since the fresh fruits and veggies from farmers' market have figured very prominently in what we are eating this summer, I'm going to have to get some serious inspiration for winter cooking or else we'll end up back with the same-old, same-old. Stay tuned, and if you have some suggestions for me I will appreciate them.

July was just a weird month, overall. Family drama is always a given. Then there are all the cat issues. (I guess that's "family" too.) There has also been some major drama in the volunteer organization to which I've dedicated about half of my life, and I'm feeling very discouraged about that. But I don't feel like there is anything I can do at this time, especially when so many of the people involved are totally apathetic and the rest are even more discouraged than I am. Those who have tried to take action are delivered "sanctions" from those sitting on high. So, I remain on the sidelines, continue doing my volunteer jobs and hope that something will come clean, eventually. Right now it all looks very dirty to me.

I'm also watching with interest as some new revelations unfold at our church. Nothing on a grand scale but I am content not to be an "insider" right now. I read a very insightful book this month called, "If the Church Were Christian" by Philip Gulley. Philip (I feel like I can call him by his first name because I've read so many of his books and now we're 'friends' on Facebook :-)) is a Quaker pastor in Indiana and he's written some amazing fiction books as well as some very great non-fiction. I love his simple way of weaving a story that makes you laugh out loud (even when you recognize yourself as one of the characters in the story), and yet at the same time he has a way of getting to the point of a serious issue very quickly. This book makes me feel like I can make a difference in the direction of my own faith, and maybe even in the direction of a group of faithful people. It's worth some further reflection. You may be hearing more about it from me in a subsequent post.

So, while this post doesn't completely wrap up my month of July, nor does it answer all your questions (as if you had a multitude of them wondering what has happened to me) but it makes me feel better to be back in the writing and blogging groove again.

I'll be back, hopefully sooner than later.