Dichroic Reflections

feline funerary

Well, that was a day. Since we don't plan to be in our current house long-term, Rudder had the excellent and fitting idea of taking personal days off work and burying the cat up on our airpark property. For the rest of the day to make sense, I need to point out that though it's only a couple housrs from Phoenix, it's nearly 6000' higher, so there's a drastic climate change. I should also point out that while that area is pine forest instead of desert and does get more rain (and snow), it's not a lot more. Until yesterday, Phoenix had had no rain for a hundred forty-some days, and the airpark area had gotten a quarter of an inch for the year to date.

1) Load up truck with picks, shovels and other implements of destruction, plus lots of containers of water to water our trees since there's been so little rain.
2) Notice truck tires are visibly low. Make an otherwise-unneeded gas station stop to fill them before leaving.
3) Drive up 2.5 hours to property - at least it's a pretty drive. Get snowed on enroute - yes, in this year with no precipitation. Saddened at the thought of leaving cat to be snowed on.
4) Get there and spend half an hour chatting with neighbor, who's been on leave from his job in CA and staying at his adjacent property. Worry because his sweet but energetic dog is running around. I don't want him to dig up our cat. Rudder's occasional unaccountable reserve kicks in and he doesn't want me to tell neighbor what we're doing up there, so I can't just ask him to put his dog inside for a bit.
5) Dig large hole in clay soil. Hole had to be large because we'd decided to bury the cat in a box, so we wouldn't have to dump earth right on him. Good thing Rudder brought the pickax; the sequence was, Rudder use pickax to break up clay, Dichroic shovel it out. Would have been difficult with one person.
6) Bury cat. *snif* Only very light flakes of something between snow and sleet, fortunately, so they felt more like a blanket than an assault.
7) Drive to gas station to fuel up for drive home. Suddenly the truck key won't open the gas cap. Talk to nice people at DairyQueen attached to gas station, and decide to drive to local locksmith instead of waiting forever for AAA. Locksmith fixes problem quickly, only charges $10.
8) Drive home. Snow worsens as we drive over the Rim; visibility severely impaired. Rudder was driving; and I don't think he enjoyed that part.
9) Stop at local cycle store to pick up Gu for weekend race. Home. Shower. Change. By now it's 6:30. Off to Best Buy to buy a videocamera, expecting a quick choice between the three models Rudder has narrowed it down to. Turns into an hour-long ordeal with idiot salesman. Appears none will play frame-by-frame, one of the major capabilities Rudder wants (for analysis of rowing technique), but we can't fully test them in the store because some are anchored in a way that precludes putting in a tape and neither box nor salesman has the answer.
10) Go to restaurant, only to find it's packed. Decide to do takeout instead. Quick run to Apple Store while food is being prepared to find out if we could at least get a video to run frame by frame on the Mac. Answer appears to be yes, staff very helpful. Comment to Rudder, "So that's what customer service is supposed to look like!" Get dinner and get home, right around when we'd normally be going to bed.

Rudder and I agreed that, despite the aggravations of the day, it was a much more fitting way to spend it than if we'd dropped off the cat at the vet's to be cremated and gone into work as usual. At least his death was marked.