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494 days ago
Spike I found Spike abandoned at a dumpster by the side of the road in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Only weeks old and less than five pounds, the vet said he wouldn't live. But he did, and how. Over the next 12 ½ years, Spike traveled more widely than most people. Spike was with me through a divorce, five hurricanes, two cats, numerous jobs, boyfriends, a doctorate degree, a new marriage, and five moves. Spike's survival was due in no part to me - but entirely to Julie and Rita. Julie and I saw him for the first time on the same day. When Julie got to her office she immediately called to see if I'd seen him and his sister at the dumpster. I had. "Someone should rescue him - we should tell Rita," was my response. Lucky for me, Julie was more proactive. She rescued the malnourished, dehydrated scrawny mutt. Unable to catch the female, she called the Humane Society and Hubert set a trap, but he was never able to catch the pup's sister. Julie kept Spike, raising ...
494 days ago
We're back in Charleston. Our three years in Germany went by far too quickly and even with all the traveling we did, we only saw and did a fraction of our list of "musts." As much as we hated to leave, it's nice to be back, too. It's both familiar and new. Familiar since it's the place we met and established our home and family, and where Lynne has lived longest for a continuous period of time since leaving for the VI in 1984; new because we're in our new house and neighborhood. Despite Lynne's initial apprehension about the house, she's rapidly growing to love it. It took some time to "bond" (through cleaning, painting and yardwork) to make it hers, but the neighborhood and neighbors won her over immediately. Matt has been surprised by some of the work we'll need to do on the house, but has puttered with the yard and pool enough to be at home here already. After 5 weeks in the house, our furniture has finally arrived. It'll be delivered tomorrow and we hope to ...
560 days ago
I've had quite an exciting week. I know there'll be a few more of these before we're packed up, moved and settled in Charleston, but this may stand out as both the most traumatic AND exciting of them. On Monday (May 5), we closed on our new house in Charleston. Hurray! It's officially ours now. You can see the pics on Matt's flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drobnikm/. That started the week's excitement. Then, on Thursday, I took Spike to New York. He'll be vacationing with "Grandma Hinkey" until the Subaru arrives in Charleston, hopefully around mid-June. The airlines won't fly pets in the summer months because of the temperatures, especially flying through Atlanta. So, Matt drove Spike and me to Frankfurt and put us on a Delta flight to JFK. Spike did great on the trip. After the two-hour drive to the airport, he was ready for some walking and didn't mind the taxis, cars and buses around the airport. Dr. ...
583 days ago
Only 6 ½ weeks to go. It seems both a long and a short time. It's a long time to be in-limbo, where we are now. Not soon enough to pack things up (we have to wait for the movers to do that on May 26), too early to start a really thorough house cleaning, and too soon to start making any serious arrangements on the other side since we don't close on the house until May 5. But, it's too short a time to fit in all the things we have yet to do and see everyone we want to see before we go. So, we plan and make lists and make insignificant efforts to get ready, like cleaning drawers and purging the closets. Suzi, from the masters swim team, asked what I'll miss most about Germany. The short and glib answer is 'everything'. Then I started to list some of the small things - krokettens, walking and biking trails, curry ketchup. From there, the list grew. Each day, some small thing will remind me of more things that I'll miss. There are so many things we take ...
599 days ago
THE BERLIN ZOO We spent the long Presidents' Day weekend in Berlin for the swim team's Championship meet. The kids did great and Matt and I added a day before and 2 days after for some sightseeing. We got in a number of the sites that I'd visited last year and knew Matt would enjoy - Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, and the Reichstag, and went to some spots that I missed and wanted to get to - the Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche, Alexander Platz (the tv tower, although it was too rainy and foggy to warrant a trip up to see the view), the Pergamon Museum (amazing!), and the zoo. The zoo was my priority 1. Knut, a baby polar bear was born on December 6 - just about 6 weeks before my last visit, and the controversy was just heating up. Knut's mother shunned him and his sibling, who subsequently died. There was quite the furor over what to do with the poor cub. Should a zoo let nature take its course and not interfere if the mother refuses to take care of her ...
