Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Crash! and a good Ramses update.

Crash
Yesterday I was in the living room and heard a snap. then the tree started to fall. Luckily a small table caught the top, keeping the entire tree from hitting the floor or we would have lost more ornaments. My neighbor helped prop the tree up so I could wipe up the water underneath the tree and the lego base plates - had to dismantle much of the lego village we build every year to get at the water. Then we managed to loosen the bolts, lean the tree into the corner, and tighten everything again. It's still standing with a small cutting board wedged under the bent part of the base to keep it level and all our handweight/dumbells weighing it down, just in case.

Turns out the 'crack' I heard was the baseplate of the stand giving way. Rich thinks there was a stress problem with the steel, and that it wasn't high enough guage. Ok, so we did have all the ornaments on 1/2 of the tree, given that it was in the corner. And it IS a heavy tree given that it has been drinking a gallon of water a day. Still - did it have to fall on the ornament side? At least 50 ornaments fell off, and we lost a good few, though at least 20 breakable ornaments on the floor and table were unharmed - only separated from their tops and hangars still on the tree. We collect ornaments every year and everyone here has ornaments from when they were babies. Each and every one holds memories of Christmases past. Thankfully none of the 'vintage' ornaments broke. I do remember buying the ones that broke - a large raspberry, a golden walnut, a sparkly plum -half of which is still missing, somewhere in the tree I think! A beautifully shaped golden and glass ornament, one of the old old old gold glass balls that glitter from way inside the tree, and a few others. The ones that make me saddest are the glass ball handpainted with a Polish scene on the inside (If I'm not mistaken it was actually made in Poland) and a heavy glass ball, painted with a snowy night and a santa-hat wearing cat atop a chimney. That one must have hit the edge of the table as it was quite thick. And the little white church with steeple and gold windows and doors that Rich & I purchased together was smashed too.

When Rich came home at lunch to survey the damage I joked about wanting to buy a package of clear glass ornaments and put the crushed pieces of ornaments inside and hang those on the tree. You know, I just may do it!

Ramses
Ramses is doing well. We decided that as his cancer is an agressive one and not curable, we couldn't risk making his last few months miserable with surgery and chemo. We're told the average GOOD, quality of life time he might get out of that would be 6 months, and that is IF he goes into remission. As when he was ill last Spring, his back legs have started to not want to cooperate, making getting on & off the couch & beds difficult at times. Dr. Allison thinks he probably has an infection somewhere, so we'll start him on tuna-flavored antibiotics today to help with that. Otherwise he is asking for wet food several times daily, going outside to explore on nice days, doing his business quickly on nasty cold days, and cuddling and purring and generally being happy. I believe he knows - sometimes he just sits on my lap looking seriously into my eyes. The drooling irritates him too but getting his chin wiped and head scratched generally sets him purring again. Having this extra time with him is a gift we all appreciate.

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