I’m so sorry for your loss, Sheryl.

ltc’s school has already been canceled for tomorrow. I don’t wanna. She was already out Friday.

Hang in there, Jacqueline.

How shocking and sad, Sheryl! I'm sorry.

sj, did you get significant snow Friday? We had nothing.

Beautiful pictures, Gud!

Chemo can be a bitch. I hope they work out a less vile experience for JZ.

Not significant enough imho and the roads were fine. New superintendent is being extra cautious. The old one used to only call things off after all the surrounding towns canceled. The new one is first instead.

Oof, it's going to be a long winter for you!

{{{ JZ }}} I wish I could loan you the use of my cast-iron stomach, or at least about half my appetite.

Beautiful pictures, Gud!

My condolences Sheryll. It does sound as if she didn't have time to suffer.

I’m so sorry for your loss, Sheryl

I have two dogs this week (trading dog sitting with a friend who will have them both next week when I’m gone instead) and they are cracking me up. They get along fine (he’s dogsat them before together) but mostly want to pretend they are the only dog, so studiously ignore each other. Luckily it’s a decent size house. The only time they were super close was when I was trying to do yoga. Then, they were both all up in my business!

{{{JZ}}}

Oh no, Sheryl! Such horrible news.

I'm recovering well from my surgery, as far as I can tell--my post-op appointment is this Friday. Mostly I'm just still bruised, sore, and itchy, and have been freshly reminded that there's no heroism in seeing how quickly you can wean yourself off pain meds.

Dylan's mother died suddenly in mid-November, we think either from a stroke or an aneurysm. We've been coping with it as you do with a complex relationship with someone you loved, and who loved you, but who went off the political deep end sometime between 2016 and 2020 and who never fully accepted Alex as her grandSON. We just received our share of the life insurance and have been discussing how to apply it to various small debts, needed home repairs and improvements, etc. when it hit us that since Dylan's dad died when he was in college, and both my parents passed over a decade ago now (wow, how has it been so long), that the next time our family gets one of these little cash infusions it'll be because one of US has died. It's so strange to no longer have elders, and that between early deaths and long generations Alex is only 18 but has no living grandparents left.

I was in that boat. All of my grandparents except one were gone before I was 5, and the last one died while I was in college. One parent gone in my 30s, the other gone in my 40s. It’s an odd unmoored feeling. At least it was for me.