Good-bye, Sandi.
31 August 2001
Last year: I get more than my short temper from my dad, though. I also inherited a healthy dose of stubborn.
Well. Yesterday could have been better. I got home after a subjectively long day of arguing with stubborn hardware and software, settled in to check my e-mail, and said hi to Jeff. I couldn't remember exactly what K.T. had wanted us to bring for tacos, so I thought I'd call her.
I picked up the phone, cleared the day's handful of telemarketing calls, and was about to turn the phone on and dial K.T.'s number, when it rang. Surprised, I looked at the CallerID display. K T Hicks, it said. Well, that was good fortune. I answered the phone. "Hey!"
There was a pause, then a subdued "Hi."
Oh shit, I thought, What now?
Sandi was dead. She'd been too sick even to walk in the morning, so K.T. and Kevin had taken her back to the vet. It turns out she'd had some sort of liver disease - the vet told them that it was the sort of thing that just happens occasionally, that there was no way to have prevented it, and by the time she started showing symptoms, it was really too late to stop it. There was only one real treatment - and it was expensive, with only a 50% chance of succeeding, and if it did succeed, Sandi would have to be fed through a tube into her stomach for the rest of her life.
Rather than put her through that, they had her euthanized. Today they're driving up to Lynchburg to bury her with Bear and Puff at her mom's house.
Good-bye, Sandi.
I realized somewhere around the middle of the day yesterday that Saturday is my mom's birthday. Her 60th birthday, no less. So tonight Matt and I are going to have to run around like mad people and try to find a present for her. I haven't the slightest idea what to get her.
Last year we got her a boom box with a CD player. The year before that I'd made her an afghan. I don't think we can top those; my mom really doesn't like things much. Maybe we'll just go to Echoes and pick up a handful of CDs, though that seems like an awful cop-out.
Anyone with any good ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them - please hurry!
Word of the Day:
supersede - to cause to be set aside; to take the place, room, or position of; to displace in favor of another
Song of the Day:
After The Thrill Is Gone (the Eagles)
Currently Reading:
- something I can't remember the title of.
Current Projects:
- drawing
- Hall stuff
- garden