Saturday

Saturday morning I got up early.  I didn't want to, but the last couple weeks I've been awake by 9:30.  Considering I go to bed at 6 am, well, that's not good.  But I can't seem to get back to sleep, so eventually I get up.  Today, I stayed in bed until almost 11 before I called it done. 

Before we could go visit the kitties, we stopped to drop off a gift for my friend Cheri.  Just before Christmas, Cheri was diagnosed with cancer.  She started chemotherapy a couple weeks ago.  Cheri is one of the most genuinely kind people I have ever known.  She truly lives with an open mind and an open heart.  She's been really amazing through this fight, but she has some bad days, too.  So I got her what I call "comfort in a box", the softest blanket you could ever imagine.  It's softer even than baby blankets.  It's made of fuzzy micro fleece.  Best of all, it comes with matching socks.  It's not much but I hope it makes her feel a little better on the bad days.

Cheri lives up in the north woods, but when she has treatments she stays here in town with her parents, so that's where we dropped the box.  Her dad answered the door and I explained who I was and that I wanted to leave the box for Cheri.  From somewhere in the house I heard Cheri's mom call "Hi!" to me.  I'd only met her once, years ago, but she remembered me, and she commented that I had been such a good friend to Cheri's brother, Mike.  That made me feel so good - that she remembered me, and that she knew of my friendship with Mike. 

When I started my current job, Mike was my mentor.  It was just the two of us, working the night shift together. I remember telling Walker when I was hired - before Mike and I met - that I really hoped we got along, cause there was no one else in the office at night.  Imagine how miserable it could have been.   The days that Mike and I worked together were the best days in this job.  When he retired it was bittersweet.  Mike and his wife moved overseas, where they had a beach house ready and waiting.  It's amazing to see him live his dream, but I sure miss him, and his lovely wife, too.  She is a fabulous cook, so Walker also misses her.  I keep up with them on Facebook. Their photos are gorgeous.  Someday, it would be incredible to visit.  Someday.  Walker would probably refuse to leave.

Anyway:  we had a nice, but brief, chat, with Cheri's parents. We couldn't linger because we had a load of supplies in the car and it was still so stinking cold, I didn't want the stuff to freeze.  The animal shelter was pleased to get our donation, and we spent about an hour visiting the dogs and kitties.  I've never thought seriously about getting a dog - we work too much for a dog - but there was this one dog there, a big girl, an older dog - and she was on the "extended stay" list, which means she's been there for at least a couple months.  It's a nice shelter, a big new building on a large lot, but she's been in that cage for months.  Of course I started crying.  Maybe visiting the animals wasn't such a great idea. What cheeses me is, I looked at pets on Craig's list and there were many offers for baby animals, several with comments like, "This is her fourth litter" and the like.  I really wish more people would spay and neuter.  There are so many beautiful animals looking for homes. 

After the visit we went to the mall.  I have half a dozen pieces of jewelry my aunt wants listed on eBay.  Well, I'm happy to do that, but I don't know what the stones are.  I was hoping someone at the mall could tell me.  There are half a dozen jewelry stores.  That was my main reason for stopping, so imagine how irritated I was when I realized I had not brought the jewelry with me.  Sigh.  Walker needed some new swim trunks, so we did shop for those, but he wasn't in a hurry and I really wanted to get those pieces listed this weekend.  In hindsight, the stores were probably busy, what with it being the last weekend before Valentine's Day.  I'll probably get better service going next weekend.