I need to go in the office for a few hours today, then go to the grocery store and get organized/packed for our trip. I'm very much looking forward to getting away from things for a while.

It's 54 degrees this morning, great summer sleeping weather. Today will be working from the office in the morning, lunch at Mom's and beginning to pack for our trip. I'll try to get a bike ride in at some point, it would be a shame to waste this beautiful weather.

one of my coworkers is married to a super nice guy who is from Beirut. They learned that his mother, who was working in an office 1 mile from the explosion, was critically injured and passed away later. I feel so bad for them, it's possible they won't be permitted to travel home for her funeral

I've posted a lot about my cat, BeeBee, over the years at BT. She's a tough calico who has survived liver failure, several respiratory infections, diabetes, pancreatitis, and for the last two years, congestive heart failure. As much as I've spent in vet bills, I joke that she should be made of solid gold.

Today was BeeBee's dental appointment to try to resolve the abscess in her mouth. The vet gave her an antibiotic shot last week and initially there was some improvement. She seemed to perk up and was moving around more, eating with seemingly less discomfort. But I was still finding little blots of blood on the old couch where she would sleep, and her eyes still had lots of goopy stuff. And she seemed to be having trouble breathing, which was very worrisome.

On Saturday her face swelled up again and there was constant drainage from her mouth and nose, like she had a massive sinus infection. I had a bad feeling about the whole thing and had kind of braced myself that maybe, at age 16, she was burning up what was left of her 9th life.

And I was right -- the vet had no sooner put her under anesthesia when he called and said he had found advanced oral cancer --- it had spread from the upper jawbone into the sinus cavity. There weren't many options --- he said that he could operate and at best, that might buy her a month at most, with very poor quality of life, but he did not recommend this. It was an easy decision to let her go.

It's tough to see them go...

Steve and I went out for dinner last night to celebrate my 30 year anniversary at Crawford, Murphy & Tilly. Like the saying goes, the days are short and the years are long. I vividly recall my first day there, most everything else is a bit of a blur. Normally this milestone would be celebrated by a lunch with my boss, but thanks to Covid, there'll be no such thing.

Yesterday's longish ride was a good one -- cloudy and overcast and not nearly as stifling hot as it has been. It almost felt like fall --- here and there you could smell woodsmoke and the tall grass on the side of the road is browning up. This must be the year for wild chicory (a light blue flower), I don't recall ever seeing so much of it, and it's very pretty. And lots of wild bee balm. Are people planting this or is it natural? Either way, I love to see all the wild flowers.

Woke up in the night with a wicked charlie horse in my right calf. Been a while since I had one of those. Guessing the combination of 80DO and long ride brought that on.