Catch up

So, where to begin? A lot has really been happening.

• Mom and I will be going to Wichita in July for "Antiques Roadshow"! She got tickets and we can each take two items. She's taking a painting she inherited and some jewelry, and I'm taking a sketchbook of an African safari and ... something else. More on this as it draws nearer.
• Buster doesn't seem to like to swim. I had to haul him out of the creek Sunday after he jumped in after some people going by in canoes. He chased them downstream a ways, into the trees on the neighbor's property. He found a good spot to dive in -- and I think he didn't expect it to be as deep as it was -- but then he couldn't find a spot to climb back up out of the creek. So I had to make my way through the trees to where he was and pull him out. It was hard not to laugh at him, even though he was obviously a bit scared of the predicament he'd gotten himself into. Still, he did go in the creek today (in the shallow part) after our walk.
• Piano music does something odd to Buster. Tonight, we had been watching "Antiques Roadshow" on the local PBS station, and afterwards, the station showed a calendar of local events, with some piano music playing underneath. Buster pricked up his ears and started trotting around the house, from the back door to the front door, to my bedroom window, like he was looking for someone. He calmed down after the music stopped.
• Buster was a big help getting through Sunday. It was on Mother's Day last year that Nipper died. I sat under the pecan tree in the backyard, where Nipper and I spent his last afternoon enjoying the warm day and the breeze, with the windsock Mom had put there blowing around us, it's streamers falling down around Nipper's face and back. On Friday evening, I was at that spot planting some flowers there, when a breeze picked up and blew the streamers around my shoulders. Without even thinking, I said, "I miss you, too, Nipper." It really felt like my ol' pup was sending me a hug. Sunday was much the same as it was that Sunday last year, and as I sat there, Buster came and sat beside me. The wind turned and blew the streamers toward Buster, and they settled on his head and shoulders. And that was almost like Nipper saying "He's a good dog, too. He'll watch over you." I'm sure some people will think I'm reading too much into nothing, but that's what it felt like. And I really think love can transcend boundaries -- even the love from a dog.
• I'm doing well health-wise, and so is my family. My support group is another situation, however. One member has had a reoccurance and will begin chemo next week, after having had a mastectomy and surgery to remove a kidney, where a tumor was found. Her prospects, are good, and she's in good spirits. However another member told us at our meeting last week that the doctors told her she has six months to a year to live. She has battling this for almost three years straight. It seemed like she was on good ground and then they found new tumors -- first in her lungs, which went away with chemo, and this latest bout with tumors in her brain. The chemo seemed to be effective a couple months ago, though, as she reported they were shrinking. And then this news. It's kind of hard to take, because she has been so active all throughout these last few years, even with the treatment. She has a teenage son she's raising herself, and she's done a lot for the deaf community, both locally and at the state level. It just ain't right.