Not Posting Much

The few of you who check this blog regularly have probably noticed I haven’t been writing much. It’s not because I have nothing to say. In fact, I have a swirl of many thoughts on celiac, faith, and other matters swirling around my head. It’s more that life has intervened and even on those occasions when I’ve wanted to translate thought to written word, I’ve not had the time.

First, and foremost, the son of a friend of mine was murdered while they were on vacation and because of my change in job/organization at work, I didn’t even hear about it until after the funeral. I first met Dino, Jr. when he was a preschooler. And his father and I have always been the two at work with a lot of kids of roughly similar age ranges. We’ve talked about our kids and their lives for years now. This one hit me hard. I want to write about evil and the way it permeates everything around us. I want to write about the randomness with which it can strike. I want to write about pain. I want to write about a lot of things, but every time I try I see Dino’s face (both father and son) and I’m struck dumb. Sometimes there simply are no words.

Then, a week ago, we had to put our beloved older Yorkie, Chip, down. It wasn’t exactly a surprise. He would have been 16 next month and that’s quite old for any dog, much less his breed. But I haven’t had any pets since I was a child and the last dog I considered “mine” died in my arms when I was fifteen (before I became an expecting father) from strychnine poisoning. Chip was blind, mostly deaf, and had had very slow growing cancer for many months. We knew it was just a matter of time. But on 6/30 he turned anorexic — eating and drinking nothing. By Monday, when nothing had changed, we knew it was time. He was still walking around, but clearly uncomfortable. And since he couldn’t eat or drink, we couldn’t even get any pain medicine in him. It was extremely hard, but we took him to the vet and spared him those last few days of increasing pain and a gradual, lingering death. But it has left a gaping hole in our lives and our younger Yorkie (four years old) has been lost. Yes, all dogs go to heaven.

My father-in-law has also had a number of health issues this past month which have kept my wife busy. Since work has also been extremely hectic, that hasn’t left much time for writing.

I will be writing again, but for now, if you pray, please pray for us. And even more for Dino and his family.