Wrenching Pain

It's been a very painful few days.

The Good News
On the good side, life is going very well for both kids, they really like their schools and like the other kids. They're making friends and are settling in wonderfully. Once we get Max's bed built he'll be feeling a bit more settled himself.

I had a lovely visit from some MN knitting guild friends (thank you, Kathy, Jennie, Shelley, Martha & Bonnie!) who came by yesterday with food and helping hands to get my yarn straightened up and some boxes emptied (but I felt too overwhelmed with to-do's to take full advantage of their aid - I have some hefty crocheting to deal with over the next few days...)

And Ninotchka is on TV today, I get to introduce Hannah to one of my favorite movies.

But we've had some great pain.

Crushing
Gerry found out yesterday that he may have a crushed disk in his back. The doctor took some Xrays and had him get an MRI last evening. We're waiting to hear back from the doctor as to what the next step will be, but Gerry continues to be in terrible physical pain.

Leggy
My legs are easing up - mostly because I've done a lot of butt-sitting for the past few days, and that's a mercy, but I just feel so overwhelmed with the work I need to get done and my physical inability to do everything I'd like to RIGHT AWAY. Patience is a virtue.

E-Misses
For some odd reason I've received several not-so-great emails lately from folks who are upset that the RRS pattern isn't available online. Most folks do understand my reasons, but every now and then someone gets a little not-very-nice, and I just happened to get a few of those emails today. An annoyance.

Crossed Wires
I've also had a few wires-crossed emails today; small, silly things, miscommunications and misunderstandings, mostly due to our move and me not being as clear as I should be. Once again, annoyances. The sample flip books from China that I've been waiting and waiting for were shipped to our NJ house the day after we moved. What's happened to them is unknown - I've sent our real estate agent to check with the new home owners, but my gut feeling is they may have ended up pitched out. I've written to the printer to request a resend of the sample books to our new address (I'm certain they'll send them out right away - it was their own mistake as they'd been directed to ship all books after Feb 5th to Minnesota)

The Greatest Pain
But our great pain is that our dear, beloved cat Butkis was killed this afternoon

He was hit by a car in front of our house - we all feel terrible. Hannah saw him first, which is so dreadful, but we were both with her, which made it slightly better. Gerry absolutely adored that cat, he was very special.

We made the decision to allow Butkis to be an outside cat when we moved to NJ. He loved being outside. He was insanely loud when he wasn't allowed to go out, and we felt that his happiness was so much greater when he was able to rule his own kingdom (About 5 years ago his littermate - an indoor cat named Milo - died of a heart attack in front of Gerry's sister.)

It wasn't a decision we made lightly, but we felt (and still feel) that all things considered it has been the better road. At least Butkis had a nice long and happy life - a thrill filled existence - he liked that.

I found his mom - a stray - when I lived in Brooklyn and Gerry actually met Butkis first. We were dating when the kittens were born, I was in North Carolina and Gerry called my hotel and left the message at the front desk, "It's a boy! It's a girl! It's a boy! It's a girl! It's a boy!"

As each of the other kittens geared up to jump out of the big cardboard box they called home, Butkis would sit next to them and blindside them, tackling them to keep them in the box. Hence the name Butkis - which should have been Butkus - oh, well...

Butkis was 14 and getting on in years. He had been getting thin lately, but we were marveling at how well he took the move to MN. We always felt that Butkis may have been walking on the wild side, but he was very happy living on the edge - and had debated making him an indoor cat when we moved. His own desire for freedom made that choice easy, but today Hannah's made the decision that Gigi will henceforth be an indoor cat - fine with us!

Gigi's definitely more suited to the indoor life, she's a meatloaf homebody of a cat, not the wild hunter that Butkis was. She will miss Butkis quite a bit.

Earlier today I was going to take a picture of Butkis curled up in the pet box sofa I put in the kitchen, but I put it off. He loved it, and it helped make him feel more at home wherever we happened to be.

Mr. Butkis
March 1993 - Feb 2007