The life of the party has gone home

Darren had to go back to work, to do some inspections. He’s a water resource engineer for the State of Idaho, and he writes permits and does compliance monitoring for wastewater reuse facilities. Darren has gone back home to Boise, taking my favorite dog with him.

Here she is, all groomed and ready to go.

I gave Kira to him willingly and gladly because – we’ll do anything for our kids, right? But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been sad about it. I cried off and on the whole day after they left.

I worried about them on their two-day drive home to Boise. But they’ve made it safely and Kira is settling in well. Now that they’re home safe, I feel a bit better. But it’s very quiet back here in Albuquerque. Two old people with two old dogs.

Darren was very excited about getting to take Kira home with him. He’s been wanting a dog for awhile. Last winter had told him I’d help him pick out a dog and get it trained this summer. That was before I got cancer. Before the world got covid.

Now I’m sick with chemo and there’s no puppies to be had anywhere anyway. So I gave him our youngest dog, Kira, the one who is obsessed with playing ball.

When he got home he discovered he hadn’t gotten his green chili from the freezer. He was very disappointed about that! No one wants to leave New Mexico without their stock of green chili!

Before they left we went on one last camping trip. I wasn’t feeling well, but I was able to be up and walking around some.

Waiting for dinner…

We walked from our campsite to an overlook. It was very nice there and I was happy to make it that far.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

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