Winter Is Coming

My gracious, it’s been a hell of a week, and it’s only Wednesday. We were having a lovely time up at the lake with my parents, boating and swimming and tubing, enjoying what felt like the last blast of summer, when Barkley got sick. He got sick in the middle of the night, and after the sixth time of letting him out, I gave up all pretenses of sleep and just curled up on the couch. He seemed to be better when we got home Sunday evening, but worsened through the night. I’ll spare you the gross details but by Monday morning he couldn’t keep down water. Too long, didn’t read: he ended up overnighting in the animal hospital, but now his sweet fuzzy self is home with us. Exhausted, on medication and a special diet, but home. I didn’t realize how many dog commercials are on TV until he was not there. I didn’t realize how much companionship he provides me, until he didn’t. But! He is home and we are all happy.

Besides being worried, and spending my nervous energy doing things like scrubbing down the oven door and cleaning grout with a toothbrush, I’ve also been preparing for back to school. We’ve been busy buying school supplies for the first time – everything is provided at our elementary school, so this is new territory – plus winter coats and pants that actually fit. I took the boys shoe shopping, which is something that never fails to break my spirit. Just stepping through the door at Sport Chek makes me feel like I’m losing the will to live, and that’s before I look at the prices of running shoes. As I was leaving, a random lady said to me I feel like I’m hemorrhaging money at this time of year, which is an apt statement that no one can disagree with.

But, we are all ready for school to start – in less than two weeks! – and I have been continuing with my Kondo-ing. One huge benefit of Kondo-ing everything is finding things I haven’t looked at in years. I found the arty, black and white album of engagement photos that we had done back in 2001. Well, I had them done, I think my husband could have done without them. To be honest, I never liked those photos; it turns out I do not look good in black and white, and also I didn’t like the artistic shots. There was one where we were kissing, with a C-Train speeding by in the background. I guess the photographer was going for the Hello Calgary look, I don’t know. Oh look! A northbound train! Let’s kiss!

Along with the photos, I discovered hundreds of CD’s, including, bizarrely, the soundtrack to Ally McBeal and a copy of Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Them. At this moment, I have eighteen bags and boxes slated for donation, not to mention a ton of recycling and – unfortunately – several bags of garbage. I still haven’t gone through the children’s school and artwork; that part is going to be an emotional landmine, so I need to wait a little bit for that.

Meanwhile, we all have haircuts this week, plus we are going to try to squeeze in some fun activities between the arctic-like weather that seems to have settled in. Yesterday I wore boots and a blanket scarf and it snowed in the mountains. Winter Is Coming! I just hope we get a few weeks of fall first.