Here are Andy, Me, Mark, Shannon, Sandy, and my mom at Ardastra Gardens and Zoo in Nassau, Bahamas. Along with a couple of friends. To be perfectly honest, we didn’t think that was the best zoo in the world, but we had fun that day anyway. Great Art courtesy of my old Minolta camera, taken by a cooperative zoo employee during shore leave from our 2005 Disney cruise, and part of my famous Shannon, Cruise, Bird, and Vacation series.
No post yesterday. I forgot. I still think that’s a good enough excuse, don’t you? Fortunately, nothing happened yesterday.
Today, Mark and I went to see a counselor. I think we both had a good experience. Fortunately for me, he told me he thinks I’m doing pretty much as well as can be expected at this point after Shannon’s passing. I still need to let the grieving run its course – I’m sure it will never end, but I’m also sure I’ll be a bit more able to concentrate after a while. The important part, he said, is to keep living my life as I work through the grief. I can do that. I think I’m doing it already, in fact.
Didn’t do much else today. Yesterday, I forgot to plan any dinner, so I ended up making a frozen skillet dinner and a tossed salad. I was a bit frustrated that I let it go until after 7:00 in the evening before I even remembered that I needed to cook dinner. Tonight, I planned ahead. I made bacon-wrapped scallops for an appetizer, grilled filet mignon and twice-baked potatoes for dinner, and caramel apple tarts for dessert. Many thanks to Chris for the Omaha Steaks Christmas present, which provided everything but the appetizers. We bought the scallops at Trader Joe’s. They were supposed to be for New Year’s Eve, but we never got to them. So Mark and I had half of them tonight. It was a good dinner.
I noticed a puddle yesterday at the front edge of my yard, right by the driveway. It had gotten worse by today, so I called the HOA, thinking it might have been an irrigation problem. They decided it wasn’t, so they suggested I call the local water district, which I did. They came out shortly to have a look and determined I had a leak in my main water supply pipe, somewhere between the water meter and the house. He also told me I was losing about half a gallon a minute. So I called the builder and asked if they could send somebody out right away. They put me in touch with the plumber who worked on building the house. Since it was leaking, they came out right away. The guy spent a few hours working on the line and got it fixed – or so I thought.
However, Mark soon discovered that the water pressure was dramatically reduced, so I called the plumber back. They guy is coming back early tomorrow morning to remove whatever is partially plugging the line. Then it will be fixed. And under warranty!
I spent a bunch of time this evening labeling old family pictures. I found a bunch of photos with Shannon in them, which was nice. I also found a couple of very brief video clips, some of which featured Shannon. I’ll have to do something with them soon. Here’s the earliest example I found: the haircut
Truly a video masterpiece! Such amazing production values.
And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: bear-pregnancy-detecting beagle!
See you tomorrow.