Cinnamon

|We had to say ‘good-bye’ to Cinnamon last Wednesday, Oct. 5. She was 14 years old and as recently as a month ago still a puppy. Oh, yeah, she was a little slower to stand up and work the arthritis out of the joints, but when she was ready to go out she’d still ‘spin her wheels’ on the concrete floor when she saw you were coming to open the door. And if there happened to be a rabbit in the yard, look out! ||

For a week or so she had no appetite at all, little energy, and had taken to wheezing a lot. We were thinking some sort of kennel cough, dog flu, pneumonia. But Tuesday evening she couldn’t even stand up. Next morning she hadn’t moved all night. We spent a few hundred dollars for x-rays and ultrasounds that established a large heart tumor and fluid from it enlarging her heart so much there was no room for her lungs to take in air. And so that evening we showed her pictures of Stephen and Kimberly and said good-bye and a few cc’s of something injected in her leg sent her on her way. Very peacefully. And then we cried.

It’s incredible how different it is without her. Everything about “home” involved her. A lot of habits were built around her.

I put pre-fab web albums together with Picasa and Photoshop Elements and couldn’t decide which I liked better so I put ’em both up. Picasa version here and Photoshop version here. These pictures are just the last couple years, since getting a digital camera. I shoulda made some captions, but it’s kinda late. Later maybe I’ll add buttons or links so people can get back here more easily after looking at the photos.

UPDATE: There’s now an album of Puppy Cinnamon pics, and an album that combines all the pics from above and the Puppy pics for a Puppy to Senior collection.

Finally Getting Back to Blog

How time flies. If anybody ever was actually interested enough to be checking for new articles here, they’ve surely given up by now. Nevertheless, I think I’ll write a little something for posterity.

The fact summer’s over has become apparent in the weather around here. Last Wednesday was downright cool – “wear a jacket” cool.

Last Tuesday we had the house painted. They did the whole thing in one day. Used to take me three or four days, as I recall, even with the kids helping. These guys used a sprayer to apply the paint, and rollers to roll it in, plus brushing where the rollers didn’t cover. The technique is called “spray and roll”. A number of people told me this was not as “good” as strictly brushing. They’re probably right, but I stayed home and watched these guys work, and afterwards it looked darn good to me. We stayed with pretty much the same color, just a tad lighter.

Suddenly Stephen’s wedding is only a month away. Yikes!! Becky found her dress last weekend. It’s stunning. I don’t have to worry what to wear myself, nobody will notice me.

The genealogy developments have been remarkable, what with confirmation about Jesse’s sister, Sarah. Our new cousin, Adrian Sheppard, has kindly sent some additional images, including official birth and death records for Jesse’s mother, Charlotte, and more. Great stuff.

I put up a little starter website for my “bandolero” alter ego, and registered a few new domain names, including oil-gas-law.com, chappell-law.net, and gaskan.com. Stephen and Kim might remember Gas, Kan.

So, happy Fall, everbody!