Dackel Princess

Missing My Friend, Candy

On Thanksgiving 2018, my friend Candy was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. I will never forget the night she called me. She had just gone to a walk-in clinic for her cough. They x-rayed her lungs and found the masses.

She called me as she sat in her car in the parking lot. She knew. I kept trying to explain away what the doctors had found, but Candy being a nurse knew.

How lucky I was to have been her friend all of those years. We could go for a while not talking on the phone and then one of us would call the other and it was like we just talked yesterday. It was always easy to talk to Candy. She understood me in so many ways, that no one else did.

When Candy and her husband visited us back in 2013, they both fell in love with our Greta. So much so that a few months later they got their very own wire-haired dachshund. Aurora went everywhere with Candy and she was the real joy in her life.

Candy was an identical twin. I speak to her sister Mary when I can. Needless to say, she is feeling an unimaginable loss. I knew this would be very hard for her.

I was not only blessed to have been Candy’s friend all these years but during her last days on this earth, I was able to give back to my friend all that she had given me, by caring for her.

My darling friend Candy passed away on February 7th, 2019. She was one of the finest women I have ever known. She gave of herself constantly and never asked for anything in return. She was one of my constants in life. One of those people that I depended on just to be there.

Candy and her darling Aurora.

I’m not sure I will ever “get over” losing this wonderful friend, who was more like a sister to me. I think perhaps I will not. I will learn to live with it.

Oh, how I miss this wonderful woman. But as I told her the last time I saw her, “Love never dies, Candy. I will see you next in God’s Garden”.

A New Chapter

I woke up on Saturday and felt like doing nothing! Usually, I have at least a desire to do one thing, but on Saturday, nope. I just had no desire to do much of anything.

I did know it was time to clean out my purse. And I knew this because I knew what was in there. and I knew it was time for me to put it away.

You see, Anneliese’s collar was in my purse. I haven’t even wanted to look at it. Today, after thinking about this, it was finally time for me to put it away with her ashes.

That collar was hers from the time she was very little. The first collar I got her, was guaranteed not to break. Anneliese chewed it in half! So we got a new one. This one made it through her fourteen-year life.

It is put away and now, I need to turn the page and start a new chapter with Arnie and Lili. This chapter will be called, My Life With Two Dogs.

I will tell you that in the last two weeks I have spent more time with Lili and Arnie. We play more and cuddle more and now that the stress of Anneliese’s illness is over, I find I am calmer and able to enjoy things again.

Oh, I still miss her, but as the song goes, “Oh yeah, life goes on…”. And so it does.

The Friday Five ~ February 5th

It’s amazing! Here we are, and it is the first Friday in February! It’s my biggest hope that 2021 goes by quickly, leading us to a Happy & Healthy 2022! But here is what’s on my mind this cold and slightly snowy Friday!

Jack got his Covid Vaccine on Thursday. He fits several categories for being at High Risk, so off he went and got the Moderna Shot. I wonder how he will be feeling in the morning? Most of my friends have had sore arms and been tired. Hopefully, that is all he will have.
Thursday found me stripping off the sofa cover, washing and drying it, and putting it back on. Now I cannot recall it being that tough! But my goodness, it was as tricky as trying to get Arnie to hold still so I can slip on his winter sweater! By the time I was done, I felt like I had run a marathon!
Tomorrow is vacuuming the house day. That’s another big chore. Not so much because of Arnie, but Lili, oh my goodness…the fur!!! Now we all know that shepherds shed. But Lili is different.
You can almost see the plumes of fur sticking out!

Her coat is so thick that she sheds clumps of white fur everywhere she goes. I will easily fill a vacuum bag going through the house. And I just vacuumed the day before yesterday! But it must be done!
I’ve been struggling with my diet since Anneliese died. But, I have decided that Friday morning I am going right back onto my eating plan. I just know that I need to get a hold of my emotions and get back to eating healthfully! No amount of cookies and crackers will bring Anneliese back. So, it’s onward and upward!
Arnie is doing pretty well now. He is all healed up from the bacterial infection that he had over Christmas, and he is finally going out and running around again.
Arnie resting on my chair.

I know he misses Anneliese, but I also think he understands that she is not coming back. I’ve been working trimming him and stripping him and once he looks sharper, I will post a new picture!

So that’s it for this week’s Friday Five. I hope you have a happy, and warm weekend!

Happy Heavenly Birthday, Grandma Honey

February 4th would have been my Grandma Honey’s 123rd birthday. It’s difficult to imagine her at that age. She passed from this world into the next 37 years ago. She was a very important woman in my life and taught me so much. Even now, I miss her like crazy!

Here she is, Mary Frances the day she married my Papa, Frederick Carl.

Here is a picture of Mel and me with our much loved, Grandma Honey, at Goodwill Park.

Grandma Honey and Papa Fred. Theirs was truly an epic love story! They met when they were less than ten years old. Grandma was friends with Papa’s sister, Katchen, and spent a lot of time at the house teaching Katchen to speak English. The family had recently arrived from Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, and aside from the eldest sister, Hedwig, who worked as a Nanny, no one spoke a lot of English.

Anyway, Papa always said he fell in love with her then, and as a teenager, he would chase off any beau that tried to court her. My great grandfather eventually allowed them to become engaged but insisted that Mary finish college before they married.

They were married until Mary eventually passed from this life to the next. He joined her 8 months later.

This & That February 3rd

Way back in November I had my hair cut into a pixie cut. I liked it well enough, seemed like a good idea at the time, but many people expressed their opinion in a kind way, “Ah, yeah, well, hair grows”.

So, I knew I needed to grow it back out. Me in November.

Between November and today, February 2nd I have had nothing done to my hair. It had grown about an inch or so and my graying roots really needed to be covered. But no cutting.

Me today!

I was pleased with how it all came out and I am thrilled not to be seeing gray roots framing my face. Perish the thought.

We did finally get some snow. I would say between 4-5 inches. My daughter got a lot more than this in the southern part of the State.

So, that’s the news from here!

Snow?

Monday arrived and there is no snow yet. I wonder if weatherpeople can actually come close with their forecasts? It seems lately they have been unbelievably off.

Our snow was supposed to start in the mid-afternoon. But so far we have nary a flake! We have heating oil, groceries and Jack went to the recycling center with a full load of trash, so we are truly prepared for what may come. But so far, nothing.

The Weekend Wrap ~ February 1st

The weekend flew by and I found myself once again cooking three actual meals or perhaps I should say 6 meals, as Jack does not eat what I eat. So, I’ve been busy.

I also decided that I needed to finally take down my little Christmas tree. This small tree was my Mom’s tree before she passed away. I use it now for many reasons, but remembering her is definitely one of them.

As I came close to the tree, I noticed that a lot of the lights were out on the tree. Now that’s no good! Usually, I wrap the tree up in plastic and store it until the next year. However, with these lights being out I decided to strip the tree this year and then get new lights for it for next year.

After the tinsel and garlands and ornaments were all off of the tree, I started to take off the lights. Two strings were dead, and half of the lights on the third string! Only the star shone brightly!

I went through and found replacement lights for the tree and ordered those. They were on sale, and once I am sure that they work, I will pack them with the tree.

But, the tree is down and the twinkling lights are gone. Time to get back to regular life once again!

I saw on the weather channel we are due for 6-12 inches of snow on Monday and into Tuesday. Ugh, more snow! So, I went out to the grocery store, picked up milk, bread, and eggs, and a few other things, and came home. I am now prepared for the storm!

I started my new book. This one is about Karen Carpenter and her struggles with Anorexia. It is so sad that she died so young (age 32) from this horrible illness. It makes me think that so many young girls are fat-shamed and they resort to starvation and other things to be what they think is perfect.

Oh my goodness. I finally watched a few episodes of “Sex and the City”. How did I miss watching that? Perhaps when it was on before I was too young to understand it.

But the last two days, I have laughed and laughed and really enjoyed the comical situations these women bring upon themselves. I know not everyone will like this show, but it is light fluff and cracks me up.

That pretty much wraps it up for now. I hope you all have a good week and if you are looking for a vaccination, I hope you can find one.

Four Feet ~ Anneliese

Recently, I was looking for a particular poem by Rudyard Kipling about the loss of his dog. I came across my picture being used by a man who does lovely readings.

I found his website and wrote telling him how much it meant to me to find this! I also told him that I didn’t mind him using it, but perhaps he could give me credit for the picture?

Today I heard from him and he sent me a new reading with credit given to me for my picture. So, gentle readers, here it is again.

What a nice man and he reads this poem perfectly!

The Friday Five ~ January 29th

It the end of another week and the end of the first month of 2021. So far, I am not impressed with what 2021 is offering. Oh well, not much I can do about it. In any case, here is this week’s Friday Five.

I am finally feeling better after the cold, which seemed to linger on and on. At least I know it wasn’t Covid, just a rather stubborn cold germ!
I had a rather unique thing happen to me the other day. I was doing errands uptown, when I looked down as I walked and saw $20.00 folded up, lying on the ground.
I picked it up and went inside the store to turn it in. They have no policy for money, but we made a plan. If no one claimed it in two days, it would come to me as the finder. Well, no one claimed it and today I collected the $20.00. But I felt strange. Like I needed to pay this forward in some way. Many of you will know I support St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital, so after lunch today I sat down and sent them the $20.00. It may not be a lot, but to someone in need, $20.00 is a lot! You know, I feel good about this. Really good.
Today I will be driving out to pick up Anneliese’s ashes. I’ve really been missing my little girl, but I know she is in a much better place.
I finished my 600-page book on the rock/pop group ABBA. It was very well done and answered so many of the questions I had about the group.
We are due for some very frigid weather the next few days. The highs will only get into the low teens. But mostly we will be in the single digits! Now that is cold!

I hope that no matter where you are your weekend will be restful and warm! Stay safe, soon it is my hope that we will be done with this blasted Virus!

TBT: Arnie & Me

Since losing his sister last week, Arnie has been very sad, very needy, and very clingy to me. For fourteen years Arnie had his little sister and he’s struggling to find his place in this new world.

Arnie was the only boy in Greta’s first litter. He actually wasn’t supposed to stay. He’s been reserved by a woman in Upstate New York. But at the last minute, she changed her mind. By then, we’d fallen in love with Arnie and he stayed.

Arnie had all the girls swooning. He is such a sweet and personable doggy and everyone who met him fell in love.

Arnie always fit into our household. Besides being born here, he was the dog who always played well with the others. He was the one who actually comforted the other dogs when they were hurt or sick.

And as the others got sick and left us, Arnie has been the one that has comforted me.

He’s such a handsome old boy. At fourteen he has a few gray hairs but his eyes are still bright and he still has that marvelous swagger when he runs outside. I am hoping Arnie will be with us for a very long time. I’m not sure I can imagine a world without him in it!

Arnie age 14.