Time

sunny - yet again! - and mild. temps plus 4

Wow - an april day. Trying not to worry because it's so mild. We almost always get a snow storm in March. Very unsettled. Usually hits around St Patrick's day.

Today's recycling day. Michael wheeled the huge blue container out to the side of the road last night. It rumbles and bumps along - we have quite a long and rutted drive. Sounds like a monster either leaving or coming. But last night I watched a show on hoarding. Ever seen it?

Very dramatic, very shocking. What I find most disconcerting is how apparently 'normal' they seem. But when you see their homes they're in an appalling state. I guess it's like any addiction - like alcoholism etc...it creeps up. Anyway, I started looking around our home and realized we have a fair amount of 'stuff' that could be recycled. Old magazines etc. All neatly stacked in the bookshelves, but our bookshelves frankly are overflowing. So I took a huge load of old magazines out to the recycling this morning before the truck came. Freed up the shelves for the books.

If you turn on 'Hoarders' in the next few months and find a tall woman and her adorable husband, both looking fairly normal, on the program you'll know the recycling stopped there.

Actually, i'm not a hoarder at all. Just the opposite. I think Michael could become one, if not closely supervised (by me). When we die our unfortunate relatives will have a heck of a job in the basement. That's where Michael keeps his 'stuff'. I've been advised not to call it 'junk'...but it is.

The writing went well today... I was tempted to continue after the 2,000 or so words but decided to stop.

We just had a call from the guest cottage. It's Tara's time. They've made an appointment with the vet out here for 2:20. Bal and Linda will drop Bethany off with us and take Tara in.

They'll have her cremated, they say. We mentioned that all our dogs, Bonnie, Seamus and Maggie have been cremated - but the ashes not buried. Indeed, perhaps that's what we hoard most. Dog ash. It's everywhere. But we couldn't quite bring ourselves to put them out, and never have them in the house again.

But we know it's time. And were planning on burying them together this summer. We told Bal that Tara was welcome to join them. But I think, right now, they're just concentrating on getting through the next two hours.