Monday, November 19, 2018

thank you ~ and a frenzy of activity

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to those of you who left heartfelt comments on my last post about the passing of my beloved cat, Zippo. I cried reading them but yet felt the love. I know a lot of you can relate. Our hearts are slowly healing, but we all still miss Zippo terribly and it's painful to look at his photos. I know this will get better as time passes. Heck, we've certainly been through a lot worse with the passing of Phil - our son/Tim's brother nine years ago. Actually, there is no comparison of the pain and loss in that regard.

But, the passing of a beloved pet - which is indeed a family member - hurts. A lot. And now that it's been a week since Zippo's passing, we are now able to realize how sick he truly was before he passed away. It breaks my heart to realize how much he must've been suffering. The thing with cats is, they don't show when they're in pain. They're very good at hiding it.

Two days before Zippo passed away, Tim moved out of our house into his own apartment. I had taken a spur-of-the moment shot into Tim's room as he was packing things up and I didn't notice until I looked at the photo later, that Zippo was sleeping on his bed. Tim had spread out a towel because Zippo's nose was bleeding. 
See how Zippo's head is hung? He was doing that a few days before he died. He couldn't fully relax enough to curl up into a ball or even put his head down to sleep. I wonder if it was because he was in pain? I know I'll never have answers to these questions, but they're just ones that have gone through my mind.


It was a crazy 48 hours with moving Tim into his apartment. It started late Friday night with him getting home from work and packing more stuff up and wanting help doing last minute things, to Saturday - moving day - helping pack up the U-Haul and our cars and carrying load after load of stuff up three flights of stairs - 34 to be exact - to Sunday when we went shopping at Wal-Mart to buy a ton of needed stuff for his new place.


We hadn't seen his new apartment until moving in day, and we were pleasantly surprised. There's a nice galley kitchen...


 and a large open living and dining space, with a small balcony and storage room off the dining area.


 The vaulted ceilings and open concept looking into the kitchen make the apartment look and feel more spacious.


 Tim also has a huge bedroom, his own bathroom (same with his roommate, who has the same on the other end of the apartment) and a big walk-in closet that I'm envious of! He's only two miles down the road from us, so it's nice still having him nearby.

My mom had asked if Tim was going to hang any of photographs around his apartment and I tried to explain to her that Tim was a single guy moving into a bachelor pad with his friend. Neither one of them are exactly into decor. This was the extent of their current decor the night they moved in. Ha!


How are you all doing with Thanksgiving prep? I went to two grocery stores today and was surprised to find that both of them weren't as crowded as I feared. And the one thing I love about holiday time is that most people in public are in good moods. The shoppers and checkout people were extra-friendly and all wishing each other a Happy Thanksgiving. In one of the stores, the man in front of me let me go ahead of him since I only had a few items. I paid the kindness forward by giving extra in the Salvation Army bucket on the way out of the store.

I am going to a Friendsgiving celebration tomorrow night and bringing a corn casserole and these pumpkin bars. Thursday, we will gather at my mom's house and I'm making another corn casserole, green beans with orange-almond gremolata, roasted carrots and parsnips with honey and fresh thyme, and a pan of brownies. 


I also made a big pot of soup today and will be making a pot of chili tomorrow. Not only are they for our lunches and dinners up until Thanksgiving, but some of each will be packaged up and delivered to a friend who's mostly housebound right now, as her husband is on hospice care at home.

What else...oh yes, of course the contractors we are dealing with have both decided that this week is the perfect time to work on our house! This afternoon, the roofers were here (yes, that project is still ongoing...they have been quite incompetent) fixing some last-minute stuff that they didn't get right the first time and tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM, the deck builders are going to be here to start ripping out our front porch/deck.

One of my blessings in life is the many friends I've made through this blog. Thank you for your kindness, support, words of wisdom and love over the years. 

Happy Thanksgiving from my house to yours. 💗







12 comments:

  1. Melanie, you must be exhausted with all that's going on! First, let me add my condolences on the passing of your sweet feline friend. Don't be hard on yourself in looking back. Hindsight is golden, and we do the best with the information we have. Besides, I think things happen for a reason and Zippo held onto to your loving home as long as he possibly could. And now, he is loving you from afar.

    Tim has a nice place! I love the decorating style, haha, isn't it funny how guys all seem to have the same style. We had our big Thanksgiving meal last weekend, and we'll have a small dinner at a friend's house this week. I am making a pie and the dressing.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you, my friend, so thankful to have met you through our blogs. xo

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  2. Oh- Gotta love those contractors!!!! Thanksgiving week no less!

    My heart aches for you and the way you are wondering about Zippo. I, too, wondered in retrospect if we had let Misty suffer and not known about it...kind of breaks my heart to think that might have been the case. I hope Zippo wasn't suffering too much those last few days.

    Congrats on Tim's new apartment. I love his 'decor"..at least I see he is planning on vacuuming. I really love the apartment. What a nice layout and a good sized place to boot. I like the split bedroom plan.

    I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving --not too stress filled and blessed! xo Diana

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  3. I also love the case of beer on his table and that the OPEN sign is propped on a vacuum box. That made me smile. I hope it did for you too.

    Happy Thanksgiving, friend!

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  4. What a week you have had. I like Tim's new apt and it's good to see our kids get out on their own, but not too far away! That photo of Zippo brought tears to my eyes. Charlie on his last night hung his head like that and I knew it was time. Makes me sad to think of them in pain but yes, cats are so good at hiding it. Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Both my girls will be here so I'm feeling very Blessed.

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  5. I'm so sorry that I am late in reading about Zippo although I saw you mention it on Instagram. Losing a beloved pet is never easy. I'm not surprised that Monkey is sitting in Zippo's chair. We lost one of our cats years ago and our other cat went through such depression.

    Have a lovely Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving.

    I have to add that when you mentioned Tim's walk in closet and in the next sentence you said he lived close by that my first thought was that you were going to store some of your clothes there!

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  6. Love the new bachelor pad, and the wine saying.

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  7. Melanie Tim's apartment looks really nice. Good luck to him as he ventures out on his own. Sounds like you have a lot of fun eating this week with Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving. Your items you are bringing sound pretty yummy. Again sorry about Zippo. I have found that time does not make the loss go away but it does lesson some and you can tolerate the loss a little better. Have a nice Thanksgiving.
    Hugs,
    Kris

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  8. Your son is going to be very happy in his new place and I am so glad he will still be near for all of you. Still sending you love about dear Zippo, it doesn't get easier as you know, it just shifts so that you can understand how much pain he was in and be happy for him that he is free from it all.

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  9. His apartment looks really nice! Zippo's head hanging like that, maybe it means he was about to go into the dying process. Or it was part of the process. Being that sick, with Abi, I remember she would try to walk and fall over, which broke my heart. I'm just going to be home with the pets. My daughter is going to her sister's house, so no leftovers for me this year!
    Brenda

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  10. Wow, that's a great space...and I love his decor! ;) Guys definitely have their own style, don't they? Much easier to clean that's for sure! I'm thinking of you and wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving. Hugs...

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  11. I've thought about you so much this week, Melanie. I know how much you're missing your sweet Zippo and that makes holidays hard. And maybe makes Tim's leaving harder too, even if he's not too far away. You amaze me with all you're doing this week but I'm so proud of you because I admit last year for Thanksgiving I was still in the stage of sitting watching Law & Order reruns to numb the pain of losing Otis and Milo. Just take care of yourself, sweet friend.

    Thinking of you,
    Dewena

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  12. Lots going on in your world these days, my friend - hope you find some much needed peace at Thanksgiving!

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