Welcome to Glenn's Blog!

Here I will periodically post random thoughts and stories about what's going on in my life and the world around me. As if anyone cared. But seriously, you've found your way here, so hopefully you will enjoy at least some of what I have to say, even if you aren't entirely interested in it. At the least, it should be a good way to waste time.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Two More Weeks

Well the semester is humming right along, we've only got two weeks more and then finals. Whew. I'm glad it's almost over. Though I suppose I say that most semesters. It's always nice to look forward to the end, where I'll finally have time to breathe. April has been tough. Not only with the plethora of concerts and events here, but also because everyone my family has spent part of it being sick. It's my turn now; I seem to have caught a small cold. I guess it was my time. Thankfully my symptoms have been mild compared to everyone else's. I'm at work at the moment, and we have two concerts today, but I'll probably be able to steal away around 2pm and get some much needed rest.

The last time I posted I was talking a bit about our cat Minnie, whose health was in somewhat of a downward spiral. Unfortunately she passed on April 7. I actually spoke to her on the phone, more or less, just a few minutes before she died. Whitney had called and we were discussing options of having to put her down, which I was not looking forward to. She was meowing softly but persistently in the background, so Whintey picked her up onto the bed and put the phone on speaker so she could 'talk' to me. She meowed a few times to me after I said hello, and then we ended the call. Five minutes later Whitney called and said she just died. I guess in some ways I was thankful. Thankful that she was able to go on her own, and without too much suffering. That's the best I could have hoped for. It was a sad loss though. She was a part of our family for a long time, and although with the arrival of Connor she mostly stayed away, she was still our baby.

But life moves on.

Speaking of moving on, time to get some stuff done to wrap up for today, as well as for the week. Last Golden Empire this Saturday, and I just about have enough people signed up to run it. Unfortunately with so many events on Friday, I can't do much pre-setup for it then. So it will be an extra early day this Saturday. Sigh. So it goes. But hey, only two more weeks until my late nights and extra weekends will cease. Then I can start ramping up for the fall semester...does it ever end??

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Trudging Along

Well here we are in April already. I guess 2017 is going to be a fast year. It's a busy week here at school, with seven concerts over five days. A total of, I believe, 34 concerts throughout the 30 days of April. Yikes. But that's typical. It's become the norm so much that it doesn't even weigh on my mind anymore. I just trudge along on autopilot, mostly. One concert here. Another there. A festival there. Another week gone by. Repeat.

It's hasn't been on autopilot at home though, as Connor was sick, then Whitney was sick, and now Minnie is nearing her final days. So I've been kept busy trying to see things in order as best I can with the limited time I'm there due to my work schedule. Minnie's actually been slowly going downhill since early January, and she stopped eating altogether in February. In recent weeks she at least licked at her soft food, and probably ingested some bits of nutrients. It's funny how cats seem to know it's their time to go, and just stop eating. Mickey was the same way.

It's gotten pretty sad in the last week, actually. She's lost so much strength that she can barely walk, and in fact she's lost all function of her front left paw. It just dangles limply as she stumbles about. But she can only move a couple of feet before needing to rest, and though it;s hard to tell, I think she's losing feeling in the left rear paw as well. She's long lost the ability to jump up to or down from things. She still purrs appreciatively when you pet her, and at least she doesn't seem to be in any pain per se. But the quality of life is certainly going down.

Every morning I wake up and check to see if she's still with us. Every evening when I get home I do the same. I admit I always kind of hope that she's passed on when I find her, hidden under the clothes in the closet or under the bed. Which I know sounds bad, but the reality is I'd much rather have her go on her own, peacefully, than for me to have to make a decision and do something to relieve her torment. But we're running out of time on that; it's already pretty sad seeing her struggle to move around with partial paralysis. I think if she hasn't passed in the next couple of days I may have to take her in. And that would be the saddest thing. I've had to do that before.

But for today, and at least tomorrow anyway, I'm still just trudging along.