Time flies when you aren't having fun too

 Today is the 5th day of the 35th week, the 28th day of the 8th month, the 240th day of 2025 [with only 118 shopping days before Christmas], and:

• Crackers Over the Keyboard Day
• Dream Day Question and Jubilee
• International Cabernet Sauvignon Day
• International Read Comics in Public Day
• National Bow Tie Day
• National Cherry Turnovers Day
• National Power Rangers Day
• National Sport Sampling Day
• National Thoughtful Day
• Race Your Mouse Around the Icons Day
• Radio Commercial Day - according to WikiPedia "WEAF in New York (now WFAN), aired its first paid radio commercial on August 28, 1922 for the Queensboro Corporation, advertising a new apartment complex in Jackson Heights, Queens, near the just-completed #7 subway line." 
• Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day
• Red Win Day
• Thoughtful Thursday
• the moon is waxing crescent
• and Voyager 1 is ~23h 16m 07s of light travel time from Earth, or 25,113,000,000 km / 15,604,000,000 miles / 167.868 AU 

Quote of the day:
"There is much to learn from swimming in the deep shades of our grief, and we will emerge from it basking in the sun. If we cannot honor our endings, then how are we supposed to usher in new beginnings?"
~ Mimi Zhu, “Grief Is an Ancestor”

Picture of the day:

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, California - traditional land of the Timbisha Shoshone, who relied on the mesquite bean pods as food during the winter.

Courtesy of Bing wallpaper of the day

The days just keep flowing by.  The grandkids are back in school as of Monday and not particularly overjoyed.  A long holiday weekend beckons - but Labor Day [which is eerily early this year] traditionally marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall.  As always, I will put away the white jeans, white shoes and sandals, and stop wearing straw hats even tho the Fashion Police no longer demand such strictures.  The weather is cooperating with the change of season vibe - this entire week has been lovely with low humidity, bright sunshine, light breezes, and highs in the mid-70°s or so.  

It's hard to believe that Tuesday marked two months since Tommy died.  On the one hand, it feels like yesterday.  The entire concept of he is totally gone just does not compute.  On the one hand, it feels like it happened an eternity ago.  I guess the change was so profound that it is difficult to imagine a different reality.   

The two in Nashville are having a bad time with it.  To them, it seems that he is just around the corner, ready to "meow" for coffee, or getting up in the night and fussing at the toilet, or just sitting and playing on the computer.  Surely if they tapped on that closed door, of his room,  he would answer. ...  

The container of his ashes sits quietly in his computer chair as he would.  And we all listen for those train whistles and think about the Boardwalk.

In September I am going to Nashville to stay for a week to see if I can help.  Hopefully we will be able to go through his things: disposing of the medications, bundling up his clothing for charity, starting to go through the art, that kind of thing.  I don't know how much we will do; they are in no hurry to reclaim his room and indeed, I fear that at least one of them would like to make it a shrine where nothing is changed.  We all grieve and miss our loved ones in different ways.

Today is a day to remember those pets that we loved and had to let go.  Panda is probably happily reunited with her original owner who raised her from a kitten; here she is trying to hold onto her sunbeam as it moves away.  Kula is probably enjoying feeling hale and hearty and being on his own; here he is convinced that he is hiding under that clear plastic cover for the shoe storage I used to have.   I miss them too.  

They say you aren't really gone until no one misses you - so Tommy, Panda, and Kula are all going to be around for a while.