No Knitting

I have no new knitting to report on. I have only been able to knit about 1/2 of a sock in the last week. I had lots of knitterly plans, but then life intervened.

I live in Michigan, but I was born and raised in Maine, and my whole family is still there. I received a call last Saturday around noon telling me that my father had a small stroke. They weren't sure exactly what damage may have been done because of medications he was on, but it didn't seem to be something too major. He had had a few mini strokes about a month earlier, but they didn't tell me since they were waiting to find out more about what was going on first. I received a few more calls during the day that convinced me that it would be a good idea for me to take a trip home. Around 11:00 p.m., as I was planning for the trip, I received a call that he was gone.

The next morning, we got up early to start packing. My husband loaded up our dog Bruce to take to stay with family while we were gone. When they arrived home around 10:30, my daughter came in crying and said that Bruce was dead.

Both my father and Bruce had some health issues, but neither were expected to die any time soon. My father had emphysema for quite some time and was on oxygen, but he was hanging in. Bruce wore a diaper because of a birth defect that caused him to not have control of his bowel and bladder, and he had a lot of problems with overheating, but he was a happy little guy and seemed to be doing just fine.

I just arrived home today after my trip to Maine. It was really nice seeing all of my family. I had seen my parents last summer, but I hadn't seen my brothers and sister or nieces and nephew in 5 years. We managed to combine a lot of fun in the trip, and had a nice barbecue with close family and friends only instead of a funeral. My father was cremated, and I have some of the ashes with me. We are planning on scattering them in a place that he loved to go to whenever he visited us here.

We aren't sure exactly what caused Bruce to die. He was only 4. It seems like he either had a heart attack or overheated because of stress. My sister-in-law buried him at my mother-in-laws land for us. It was easier to forget that he was gone while we were off in Maine, but now that we are back home, we are starting to notice his absence. He was the best dog that we have ever owned. We had him since the day he born.

Since today is only my first day back, I am still worn out and not able to do much of anything. My husband took the girls to see Harry Potter, but I stayed home because I didn't have the energy to go. I'll see it sooner or later, but today I didn't even care to go. I wore myself out with too many late nights and two 16 hour drives halfway across the country.

I am hoping to have the energy to get back to knitting tomorrow. I received my package from KnitPicks that has the yarn I plan on using for the Mystery Stole #3. And after stalking the mailman for one week and being gone a second, I haven't even had the energy to open the box today. Now that's tired!