Christmas

Well another successful Christmas has come and gone. My family had both sides get together over the past week and we did the usual Christmas Eve dinner and Midnight Mass thing as well. Over all everyone involved had a great time.

The funniest thing post Christmas was trying out the new Wii Fit. It seems to think that I'm fat and old. I do know that over the past little while I have put on some weight but I blame my current employer for that.

To everyone out there I wish you all a great New Year's celebration and see you all in 2010.

Fun times

Well as Bubbles and I noticed the furnace wasn't acting up to par over the past little while. The heat exchanger was popping and creaking when the furnace turned on. Heat output on the second floor was marginal at best and when the heat did come up it was only on for a few seconds before the furnace turned off again.

With all that we decided that we needed a new one. This was the plan but it was next year's plan not this years :( Anyway we got the new one installed yesterday, along with a new water heater, and everything is going along just fine. The house is a more normal temperature and better regulated cycle to cycle. Tomorrow's experiment will be if I actually drain the hot water tank when I take a shower, I could with the old one and it was only for half an hour.

Before everyone is up in arms about "Why not get them fixed?" it should be noted that both were house original pieces which dated them at about 26 years of age. Both have had their due and could be replaced without shame. Besides you can't get parts for a "Clare" furnace any more.

Somehow this seems right

Well most of it at least. Maybe not the donkey but the rest does. C-A-D you kill me sometimes. Anyone else think that it is true to life?

Funny in a painful way

Now most people know that I have a wild talent for injuring myself on broad/blunt/simple things. Well I managed to really wound myself yesterday with something that I figured was unimaginable. This actually tops my lemon burn. Yesterday I was pulling apart a cabbage leaf by leaf and low and behold I managed to wound myself under my thumb to the point of bleeding.

Does this make it a new high or low for me?

Final destination

We got Five's ashes back yesterday and found a surprising thing in there as well. They took a clay footprint of him before the cremation. It was sweet and something I will hold onto for a long time.

Final Journey

Well today when I came home after a long day out of the house I found that Five had about every symptom to look for when deciding when to put him down. His eye had so much goop in it there were bubbles forming. His back end wasn't walking the same path that the front end was walking. He hadn't cleaned his paws or his body since walking in the rain hours before hand. All of that made both my wife and I decide that now would be the best time to put him down.

I found an animal hospital that was open that could do the job so I packed Five up for the last time and took him away. The process was quick and painless from what I could see and I held his head until well after the fact. Now he is taking a journey that has no return and I hope he finds his paradise along that path.

For now I'll be thinking about him while trying to juggle a new born baby. Oh what conflicted times.

Fading Five

Most of you know what is going on in my personal life so no point recapping that except that photos will be coming soon.

Anyway Five is starting to fade faster than I thought he would. It looks like the problems have spread to his left eye and maybe his spinal cord. He has problems walking sometimes and going up and down stairs. Rarely right now his back end doesn't follow the front end when it is going places. He gave his head a shake like he had water on his head and the back end almost fell flat on the ground.

His condition is distinctly more troubled than it was, especially since last Friday.