MissingIntellect.Net

Well, it’s about time to dust this thing off already. Yeah, I know it’s been quite some time since I’ve posted here. I could probably come up with a ton of excuses, I’ve been to busy or something, but although I have been busy, it’s not like I was so busy I couldn’t take a few minutes and post here. It’s not like I haven’t had anything to write about, I could’ve posted many times since my last entry, but I’ve just been lazy. Well, I’m finally ready to get back into posting. Here’s a little bit that’s happened since.

Well, my grandfather wasn’t the first death in my family. I wrote about my precious dog Maggie’s near-death a few months ago. Well, on January 18th she was vomiting up blood, so we took her to the vet. The vet thought she had probably somehow gotten into some rat poison (who knew where from, we didn’t have any) and gave her a shot and sent her home. She seemed to be a little bit better until later that night, when she went into the other room and laid down in her air kennel–face first. She didn’t move for a while, and we got worried. We opened up the air kennel, and she was unresponsive, so we rushed her to the animal hospital across town. Well, unfortunately, we were too late. She had stopped breathing by the time we’d gotten a block away from home, and she was pronounced dead when we arrived. She had suffered from “bloat” a condition not uncommon in older large-breed dogs. It was sudden, but fortunately she never suffered; she just went to sleep. As devastated as I was at losing her, realized that she spent every waking moment thinking about this. In the twelve years we had her, we received more attention and affection that many people received more attention than many people receive in their entire lives. Rest in peace, puppy.

Unfortunately, losing my dog wasn’t the only loss that life had in store for me. On New Year’s Eve, my 94-year-old grandmother (on my dad’s side) suffered a heart attack and stroke. Miraculously she survived, but she never recovered. She was sent home from the hospital to die. The doctor thought she had a week. She didn’t even make it a full day. She passed away early in the morning on the 20th of January, 2 days after losing Maggie. That same morning, we scattered my grandfather’s ashes at sea. At Christmas she said she knew it was her last one, and we knew her passing was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. On top of that, we no longer had Maggie to comfort us.

In posting this, I’m not looking for pity or encouragement. I’m just posting about what’s happening in my life. Sure, it’s been hard. Sometimes you think you’ve had it hard, until life gives you everything you’ve got. All you can do is take it the best you can. It’s a hard road, but once you make it through, you come out a better man. It’s those though trials, and how you take them, that make you who you are. As hard as it’s been, I’m a better man for it.

OK, this is probably my longest post ever, by far. I have plenty more that I could write about, but I’ll leave that for another post.