It’s not that I am exhausted it’s that I have exhausted today. I devoted the day to two important jobs around the house. The first was quite an adventure. Her house is over 150 years old and in humid parts of the summer the basement can get pretty damp and musty.… Today I installed some ductwork and an exhaust fan to try to pull some of that moist air out and pull some of the smells Out with it. Like everything, it was a lot more Work van we anticipated… And they were some unknown pitfalls like a pool of water which we can’t figure out where it came From… But in the end it’s all nice and working well. We’ll see how well it does it keep in the moisture down
As soon as that was done I went upstairs and put in a new bathroom fan in the downstairs bathroom. As far as I remember it’s been missing for about 20 years. Like everything in this house, it to was not easy. Nothing is standard so I had to create some funny mounting but in the end it’s working
It felt good to get that done .. we were just about to sit down to a movie whe I hear Kyle scream .. we have another bar in the house ! Let’s see if I can get him on camera ! Looks like I got him (or her)
Diane And I went for a run this morning along the riveshore path. The path that the dogs have run with us for their entire lives.
It’s a narrow, Fern lined sand track it runs right along the Winooski river. It’s only wide enough for one runner… So in these times of Covid it requires one party to move off into the ferns to let the other one pass.. Today for some reason we ran into more neighbors then we usually do… And each stop to tell us how sorry they were about Satori. 
What neighbor said it was like the whole neighborhood had lost a friend… Well that choked me up… It also made me feel really good. I feel grateful to live in a community that it’s that close. By the end of the run I felt much better
Later today a funny/sad thing happened. Diane went by the vet and picked up Satori’s ashes.
(… A weird thing to type)
It was a bittersweet moment having our friend back home… The one crazy distance is that the bag that held her cremated remains had the label “final gift”
Yesterday marked a week after Satori died. In my culture You mark the death of a close relative with it. Called “Shiva”… It means seven in Hebrew. It’s a time where you reflect on loss, good memories… And embrace the support of others. I hadn’t thought of it till just now but that period ended yesterday. We have been So grateful for all the thoughts people have sent after satori’s death .. I mailed, email, text, Facebook, Instagram… We appreciate all that love... I hadn’t realized it but there’s a whole range of wonderful cards that you send to people on the death of a pet… Who knew?…
Supposedly you are to begin going back to your normal life after sitting Shiva… But no one I know has ever done that.… It takes time to heal.
It’s also interesting to contemplate where does the death of a pet play on the spectrum of grief?… Many folks kind of struggle with that… I remember when sam died it was pretty frequent to hear someone talk about the Death of a pet I suppose in a way to relate… I always found it odd back the .. Even as I appreciated their attempt to relate.Now for some reason it seems less crazy. Pets are clearly family.. The sadness we feel that their passing comes from the same place as a loss of family and friends… I know it’s different… And it’s supposed to be different…
Very busy day with lots of moving parts. Early on we found out that it was our housemate ‘Kyle’s birthday. She didn’t make a very big deal about it. Tonight on our normal Wednesday evening hike up Bolton Diane managed to steal away a box of cakes so we had a little surprise party at the top of fire Tower.
