PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Highlights From the 2nd and 3rd Weeks of February
February 5–18, 2024
The last two weeks are a blur. I know I didn’t get pictures every day, and some days, I didn’t even try, so I’m sharing some of the highlights from the past two weeks.
On Tuesday, February 6, 2024, my husband got “the call.” A kidney was available, and he would be traveling to Salt Lake City, UT, for the transplant. He needed two full-time caretakers, so his mom and I signed and sent in the paperwork months ago. His mom went to Salt Lake with him while I stayed behind to arrange dog-sitting, complete the catastrophic leave paperwork for his job, and load up his dialysis supplies to be returned to the clinic.
The lead photo is from Tuesday evening. I was stressed and worried about everything, so I took a walk around the neighborhood after dark to get some air and calm down a little.
The dogs don’t like it when Dave isn’t home. For a while, Charlie was sleeping peacefully with his head on a pillow on my lap. He moved to the other end of the couch a little later.
I accidentally touched him with my foot, waking him up. The snarl on his face let me know I had disturbed him and that was not okay.
A few friends from work and I had planned to go to a local Indian restaurant on Thursday. I was still able to go, and thought it would be good to get out of the house.
I chose Palak Paneer, a dish with pieces of cheese and a spinach sauce. We all ordered garlic naan bread. Basmati rice came with all of our meals.
The transplant surgery took place on Wednesday morning. All went well, and by Friday, Dave was calling, worried about his paperwork. Without it, he wouldn’t get paid for his time away from work.
I had to drive across town for his doctor to sign two of the forms, and then I had to drop the forms off at the Human Resources office. Luckily, the HR office was in Carson City and not Reno. That saved me a lot of time.
As I parked my car, I looked across the street and saw our city deer grazing on weeds and grass. There’s no snow on the ground right now, so they took advantage of their easy meals.
I’d bought tickets with two friends to see Pretty Woman, the Musical in Reno on Sunday evening. We all drove up together and watched the show; then I went home to apologize to the dogs for leaving them home alone at night. They were watching TV the whole time, and I think they forgave me (after I gave them treats).
We had to park and walk a few blocks to the Pioneer Center to watch the show. Our walk took us across a bridge over the Truckee River. I loved the moon above the city, the lit-up whale statue, and the view of another bridge.
One night, a couple days before I was supposed to leave for Salt Lake, I was sitting at home watching TV. Both dogs were in the living room, sleeping, or so I thought.
I looked over to see Charlie lying on the couch upside down, staring at me. Eventually, he fell asleep like that. I didn’t think he looked comfortable at all, but I guess he disagreed!
Dave’s mom needed to get home, and I was planning to take over for the last two weeks he needed to be in Utah. I’d arranged a dog sitter until she could take over, and I left for Salt Lake on Saturday morning.
The photo above is the view from a rest area outside of Wendover, NV, overlooking the Bonneville Salt Flats. I had approximately two hours left, and I arrived at the hotel around 7:30 p.m. I lost an hour on the drive west; Mountain Time is an hour later than the Pacific Time Zone I was used to.
These were highlights from the last two weeks of my life. Dennett started this Photo-a-Day Challenge during the summer of 2020, and since then, others have joined including Anne Bonfert, Erika Burkhalter, Susan Alison, Barbara Radisavljevic, Barb Dalton, Ellie Jacobson, Mia Verita, Penny Grubb, Jane Frost (Jane Grows Garden Rooms), Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages, K. Barrett, Sandra B, Krasi Shapkarova, and more!