Webcams and a sad bit

Recently I opened up a new email account for professional contacts and such. Like all iGoogle accounts, this one has the potential to be personalized. You can chose from thousands of gadgets and widgets to plop onto your home page, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Because I have the news and how-tos of the day and weather on my other email, this new one got some fun stuff on it just to change things up. My favorite so far is the Worldwide Webcam feed.

I love the Worldwide Webcam feed. It changes every minute or so, and is about as random as you can get. One minute it’s projecting the utter blackness of a Figiian night, the next minute you could be getting an awesome shot of the Idaho mountains or be staring directly at a piece of sidewalk in Ann Arbor (both of which just happened). There’s a webcam hooked up in some hubcap shop in Tampa, one in Belgrade showing a gorgeous cathedral, there are TONS from Japan but normally they don’t look like much when I’m online (it’s night there!).

A nice feature of the WWWC is that you don’t have to wait to get your next taste of the world. Nope – just click the ‘next,’ wait a sec, and BINGO – you’re someplace new! Yay!

Now, it might be that I’m really easily amused, but you do have to admit that the WWWC roulette does have a certain addictive charm, no? It could be that one day that hubcap shop will show up again (I’ve seen it 3 times so far!) and someone will be buying something! Or maybe there will be a wedding at the cathedral, or one of the Japancams will catch a suited businessman waiting patiently for the last train home. At some point a little personal slice of life will present itself, like maybe that soccer field in Wendago NY will have a game on it, or that little airport in Idaho will have a plane landing, or that slab of concrete in MI will be occupied by a little kid drawing with chalk.

It’s a fun little diversion; a wee vacation away from the cube to exotic (HUBCAP SHOP!) locations, one minute at a time.

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For those of you who do not do the FB and so would not have seen my announcement of 2 days ago, some sad news: Skeeter the dog has passed on.

Those bone spurs on her spine or whatever it was that was making her almost completely lame in the back legs got worse and worse until she just didn’t want to get up most of the time. Even with tramadol and prednisone she was still uncomfortable. She’d have bursts of energy, and on Monday was doing well enough to stand up on her own (a huge improvement!), but by Tuesday morning she was down again and looking bad.

By Tuesday afternoon she was gone. Thing 2 found her by the back door, exactly where she plopped down after going out that morning. It was clear she hadn't moved more than a few inches all day. The food I put down for her that morning was still untouched, and she'd not even had any water. After 12.5 years of living, it just got too much to do. I think she may have just laid down to die.

The most sad part to me is that she died alone. The least sad part is she did it on her own time, and spared us a very painful decision that neither of us wanted to make. Those bursts of energy were providing touches of hope, perhaps too much.

We took her out to the back porch, resting her on her doggie bed, in preparation for the boys and my ex to come and say their ‘goodbyes.’ After that, we (mostly Biff) dug a big ol’ hole in the backyard, wrapped her in an old sheet, placed a tennis ball (her favorite toy ever) near her head, and buried her. In true Viking fashion we then had a bonfire, sitting mostly in silence watching the flames and enjoying the crackle of burning pine.

Tonight I plan to dig a slightly smaller hole next to her spot and plant the maple tree Thing 2 and I bought Tuesday afternoon while running made-up errands to avoid being in the house with her. That maple tree will be a nice spot to go sit someday, to think and relax and maybe have a chat with an old friend who is lying several feet underground.

Good girl, Skeeter. Good girl.