Author: Elaine

Rion’s Tenth Birthday

According to his adoption records, Rion was born ten years ago on October 20 to a Miniature Schnauzer bitch in the Pikes Peak Humane Society foster program. He has had some health struggles over the years: the most severe of which is a seizure disorder, which developed when he was two. (Rion doesn’t have gentle, stare-at-the-wall seizures. His seizures fling his body across the room.) Fortunately, his seizures are completely controlled by a wonderful drug called Zonisamide, and he bounces around an agility course like a much younger dog. Considering the statistics on dogs with idiopathic epilepsy every happy, healthy year feels like a win.

New House

On August 1st, we closed on our new house, which had been in the process of being built since the end of March. Two days later our furniture was delivered.

We are mostly moved in at this point and the house is quite livable. We still have items in storage at a friend’s that we are working on getting placed in the house and garage, though a lot of the stuff will probably get donated to thrift stores. Downsizing from a 2300 square foot house with multiple outbuildings to a 1600 square foot with a three car garage is a challenge. We specifically did not have a basement built so everything has to go in the house or in the third garage.

I love the floor plan. The kitchen, dining area, and great room are all open so there is a roomy feeling. The master bedroom suite is also quite roomy which is one of the reasons we chose this layout. Also contributing to the feeling of spaciousness is the nine-foot ceilings. The nine-foot ceilings allowed us to hang some suspended platforms in the garage which helps with storing little-used items like holiday decorations.

The house has a lot of accessibility options which we hope that we don’t need for many years. I am not missing have steps at all, though.

The first ten days were a challenge since we moved in before the fence was built. The dogs required walking four or five times a day. We also didn’t get our refrigerator until we had been here for several days so we had to make due with ice chests.

Jack has the smallest of the three bedrooms for his office, and I have a slightly larger room for my craft room and office.

A few days ago I noticed a sign in front of a neighbor’s house that said Private Residence as I left to run errands. When I returned home, the same sign was in front of our house. Since we are still in a construction zone, I assume the signs are there to let tradesmen know which houses are occupied.

Don’s Ragman – 1985 – 2018

This is one of my favorite photos of Rags, taken about ten years ago. When we left in May for a six-week road trip, he was in fair condition: not too bad for a thirty-three-year-old horse. A few weeks before we got back, the friend who was taking care of him said he was losing condition. Even worse, he was losing his appetite. When I got back, I realized he had lost at least a grade of condition. Jack and I decided it was time.

A little while ago, his vet came out and agreed that he looked far worse than the last time she saw him. She said it probably cancer. She administered the injections, and he was gone in an instant.

We had Rags since he was an eight-year-old: over twenty-five years.

Snow Day

This morning our personal weather station reported that it was -7F at the lowest temperature. When I took this photo around 11:00 am, it had risen to a balmy 20F. This has been a winter for wild temperature swings: on Sunday the high was 60F.