Weekend two…reclaiming Sunday. The start of the day is easy…it’s routine getting up early to head to the gym for Body Pump. I am so thankful for this commitment I have made to myself. The weekend is only 48 short hours..and as I told a friend today…I don’t want to give more than sixteen of those hours to sleep. Walking out of the gym it only ten am…and I have already achieved a goal. It is a beautiful fall day. I head to Starbucks for breakfast…happy to have the company of that good friend. People are rushing the season though…dressed in sweaters, scarfs and boots. Whatever happened to transitioning? Leaving Starbucks…I know I am headed for the hardest part of my day. Fortunately, I have a mission to calm Delilah’s new found anxiety…and head to Petsmart to purchase the infamous Thunder Shirt. This is now necessary after a disaster that occurred the day after Labor Day (just as Steve and Sarah moved out). Alex was bringing Weezy to Tufts Medical Center for Small Dogs for his disc issues. I knew this was not going to be good for Delilah…who had never been alone (without at least the company of the other dogs). I envisioned her freaking out when Alex took Weezy for a “ride”. Alex left her with access to the kitchen only…locked in by the dog gates (we had learned early on that Delilah could not be crated…ripping the contents of her dog bed to shreds. Tufts was an hour away. Alex returned three hours later…opening the door…to a spray of water hitting his face. That’s right…water. Water was spraying at the ceiling…the kitchen flooded…and Delilah wading through it with the foam from the big dog bed floating in it. She had pulled the ice maker line from behind the refrigerator and punctured it. He called me while I was on the bus…to let me know what he had happened and quickly hung up on me. Not two minutes later…he was calling me back…to let me know that when he went down to the basement to get the shop vac…the basement was also flooded. I don’t use ice for anything…so that is the last of the ice machine. We have…however…blocked access…as I am afraid she will burn my house down biting the electrical cord…and fry herself in the process. So now desperately hoping to find a solution to Delilah’s abandonment issues…I am surprised to find that this forty dollar shirt does not come with batteries. It is nothing more than a swaddler. The girl that works there tells me that some people swear by it…and others find it doesn’t work. She suggests that I also try a plug-in pheromone scent that only dogs can smell that remind them of their mother. This costs eighty dollars. She tells me to try one at a time…so that I can be sure which works…and which may not. Back at home again…I swaddle the relunctant Delilah into her new Thunder Shirt (I am thinking Adventures in Babysitting as I put it on her). Not five minutes later Alex is yelling that she has managed to slip the top half off. I am thinking pheromones now. We loosen the neck a bit. She decides to keep it on after that. Okay…now what? The house is clean…the laundry is done. It’s three o’clock. Dinner? It’s what I know. I pick out a recipe from a magazine that depicts my new life…”Cooking For Two”…and jump in my car to go to the grocery store. The comfort of the grocery store ends too soon. By four-thirty I decide to start prepping the pork tenderloin. I put on my IHeart radio to my Blake Shelton station. Country music is comforting…but soon it makes me miss Steve...who I was so surprised and thrilled to learn that we had discovered it at the same time. Country music…(like Yoga)…is simple…with simple ingredients…a girl (always in cut-off blue jeans)…a truck..and some beer. I want to be in the kitchen listening to Zac Brown and “Toes in the Sand” …with my son. Instead I am cooking alone…except for Luke Bryan. I tell myself I am happy. I still need to figure this empty-nest thing out. So, I am spending my Sunday writing to you…hoping I said something that resonated…or maybe just put a smile on your face. Life is good after all…every day.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 21:40:31 +0000
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