Thank you so much for all the love everybody.

I'm doing OK, certainly better than I thought I would be doing. (My eyes are still kind of puffy but that just looks like allergies so I don't have to get all tied up in explaining it).

I've been doing a lot of 'comfort reading.' I re-read "Finn Family Moomintroll" yesterday afternoon and also read a big chunk of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."

Reading is the best anesthetic when I feel bad...better even than knitting.

50 reasons to read more. Not that I agree with all of these but some of them are interesting food-for-thought. (And that should be make FEWER mistakes. FEWER. Not LESS.)

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Another thing I did that I think helped - I sent a thank-you note to the cat's veterinarian. I know from having gone along a few times when Patty needed blood drawn or something else that she took a special interest in, and really liked, cats. (And I suppose even though a vet does try to cultivate some distance, it may be hard on THEM when they lose a patient, even a patient who is very old and sick and at the end of her natural life).

I wanted to let her know how much I appreciated the care she took, and all the trouble she went to (finding alternate therapies, even a few that hadn't been widely used before, when Patty didn't tolerate the standard ones well). I think Patty probably had +2 years of life (maybe more) thanks to the doctor's efforts.

She's a good vet and I'd highly recommend her to anyone in the Central Illinois area. (If you happen to be, and are looking for a vet? e-mail me, and I can give you her name and the name of her clinic)

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So, onward. I'm trying to clean my office a bit this afternoon and I wrote my syllabi for the fall.

(And Karin - I got it in the mail. I had to go to the post office for a couple other things so it worked out conveniently that I could do them all at once).

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I also have to say - selfishly - that it was probably a blessing to me that Patty went when she did - the semester winding down, if I have to pass the next day or two on autopilot a bit it won't hurt anything too much. It would have been much harder at the start or middle of a busy semester (or at Christmas, as happened with our last cat). And if my parents are still kind of sad about it next week, I'll be up there for a short visit, if that helps them.