June 19, 2004
George, RIP
George - I'm sad to say that somewhere in the last twelve hours or so, George died. From what I can guess, I'd say it was just a cardiovascular death. There were no signs that he got into a battle with any other animals. He was about a dozen years old so to use the traditional expression, "he died of old age". Claire and Abby will miss him the most. Years ago Michelle and I took George in shortly after Michelle's cat, Shadow, died. Cali, Shadow, and George were all cats we took in when we had no children. With five little ones to take care of now, I don't think we'll be replacing George any time soon with another pet.
Accord - On Thursday evening I picked up our Accord again from GateCity. I'd like to say I was thrilled, because they did do a good job, but it's hard to get excited about restoring your car to the condition it should have already been in. It's unknown why the paint de-laminated like it did. They did a decent job buffing out the other panels to minimize minor scratches and bring back some luster so that the newly painted panels wouldn't stand out so much.
Claire - Claire is now out of school. She got a certificate for perfect attendance and had an excellent report card. Hopefully she'll be able to keep herself busy and not complain about boredom this summer.
Stoves - I plan on going with Claire today to take another look at pellet stoves at StoveKeepers in nearby Amherst. We were considering them last year but by the time we looked into it, it was getting into the fall season and demand was near its peak. At that time we were debating which we wanted to do first: a pellet stove insert for the fireplace or a piano. Since the stoves were getting back-ordered, we went with the piano and decided to wait until the following summer for the stove.
[Update (2:30 p.m.)] This is the model we decided to go with. Here's another photo from the brochure, although our mantle doesn't look nearly that glamorous. It will be installed in mid-July.
We have a sitter planned to come so that Michelle and I can go out tonight. Who-hoo!
I'm so sorry to hear about George- Michelle & I were just talking about our cats yesterday. I hope the girls are doing okay.
Alyssa
Claire was sad for the first hour or so but then seemed to have "closure" once they arranged some stones and flowers over the burial site. Claire even "said a few words" that she had written to commemorate him. Abby was a bit more like me. She was saying things like: 'well at least we don't have to keep moving George's food bowl away from Timothy'.
Overall a weird day: start with burying George, purchased a pellet stove by noontime, cleared a sink drain in the afternoon, and had dinner at the Pasta Loft with Michelle and later went to a local bookstore to browse.
Posted by: Scott at June 19, 2004 09:53 PM