This week was the Midwinter break, and much needed. It takes a few days for me to adjust to a different routine, and I am settled into break week now, just in time for it to end.
Three weeks and a day after the end of Black Bean's life, Feathers, too met her end. In the week and a half before she suddenly died, it was not clear whether her condition was extremely serious or rather minor, and no one was sure one way or the other until she suddenly died. I miss her. I keep thinking I'll see her little fuzzy self sleeping in the box on my desk or peering out my window or leaping from her hiding spot to visit when I get up to use the bathroom in the night. Maybe she is snoozing in the laundry basket, or curled up in the sunny spot by the printer... I found her and Nutmeg outside our apartment in Huntsville, Alabama when they were just a few weeks old. I bottle fed them and watched them loose their milk teeth and observed as their eyes changed from blue to green. When Feathers was tiny, she would open her mouth to talk and no sound would come out - and though she was always soft spoken (unlike her sister with a cranky alto voice) she did become audible. She was playful, yes, but always gentle. After Black Bean died, Lazarus made it clear that Feathers was his favorite cat now... As of this week, it is Nutmeg. NASA is just a lot too wild for him.
Our break week started with a fun concert at the neighborhood library. We were able to share our music with the largest audience we've ever recruited. We, along with Linda, played the third Beethoven string trio and the Mozart Divertimento. Due to all kinds of factors, it was less well rehearsed than we hoped, yet it was quite enjoyable.
It was also an ending. We quickly scheduled the concert when Jeffrey and Linda announced their move to Texas, and at the end of our break week, they left for their new adventure.
They will be missed much. They are some of the very few whom I felt comfortable inviting into our house in its natural condition, and we have seen them much more than anyone else in our decade here. It has been a tough decade for making and visiting with friends on account of overwhelm, so it has been good to have family here. That is one of the main reasons we moved here in the first place - family.
In addition to being able to visit in a messy house, they are also the kind of people we can call up on Friday and say: "We are headed out camping in the next hour, and it seems Anne is not going. Can she stay with you for the weekend?" And the answer is yes. Or I can call them up on Tuesday and say: "Feathers is quite poorly and has a special vet visit at 4 pm tomorrow, and it would be really hard to reschedule four students to get her there. Can you take her?" And the answer is yes. Or Anne can call up Uncle Jeff and say: "I want to invite my friends over for a party of explosions for my birthday. Can you blow things up for us?" And he shows up with for different crazy science demos and multiple mad scientist costumes, as well as accessible explanations for the friends of the activities and precise safety instructions. That's just the beginning of it...
