Cccccccolddddd….

Happy 2014.  And Welcome back. 
 

Probably half the bloggers in the USA have written about how cold it is this winter. I am using it as an excuse to start posting again.  Living in ChicagoLand, it’s been pretty interesting.  I can’t say I like temperatures below zero.  But I have enjoyed the cold a fair bit when it was less extreme – teens and twenties (farenheit).  I love to cross-country ski.  It’s my favorite winter workout.  It gets me outdoors and pushes me to the edge of breathless, a lot like a good Bulgarian Pajduško.  

Since it’s been so long since I wrote, of course a lot has happened.  Big things: Home Ownership (December 2012), loss of Leo (January 2013) and adoption of Coco (September 2013).  

I wrote about Leo in April of 2010.  I loved that boy.  He got me through some of my darkest times.  I had every reason not to expect him to live a normal Golden Retriever lifespan, but he did.  His end was fast and easy/painless.  For him, which is what counts.  My pain still exists.  But I am grateful to have had him for so long and that he didn’t suffer a long decline.  

Coco is a rescued poodle mix.  Recently I described her to facebook friends as “15 pounds of cute entitlement”.  

Photo Credit:  Margaret Loomis

She’s smart, sweet, playful, and snuggly.  She’s not Leo.  But she has her own special place in my heart, having wormed her way in overnight when I fostered her for a weekend in late September to “see if we’d suit”.  I try to maintain discipline and mostly I succeed. 

I bought a lovely house that I’m still crazy about.  The yard could be bigger, but it’s big enough to grow flowers and a small vegetable plot.  It is perfect in every other way.  I have been reunited with my piano and I have a real kitchen again (and my kitchen stuff!).  Leo got to live in it for 3 weeks before he died.  Coco is snoozing on the loveseat here in my office as I write. 

I feel pretty settled, now.  I have a small group of very dear friends here (you know who you are!) and a large group of activity buddies, conversation companions, professional colleagues, and assorted fellow audience members.   I have been thinking for a while about coming back, and I guess…I’m here.  I hope to hold forth on a new variety of topics in the same spirit in which I began this blog.  Variety is still the spice of my life.  Hope you’re getting started on a great year, too.