I bought this lovely bouquet of flowers when we were at that other hotel, because we really needed a lift there. I saved all the rose petals and have them in the glass vase that I got to keep the flowers watered in. Probably something about not wanting to let go of a thing so pretty, or maybe of anything right this moment.
Well, there’s lots of good news to report. We’ve been in a much nicer hotel for a week now. We have space here, and quiet, and a glorious west-facing room with two big windows that let our wonderful, life affirming and happiness giving Sun stream in unabated in the afternoons.
On the not so good side is the fact that yesterday, hotel maintenance had to come in to clean the HVAC systems in each room. It was loud and brought probably 20 minutes of disruption, and it triggered poor Nova’s trauma from the house fire. She hid for the next ten hours, no eating or drinking or anything but hiding.
Later in the day, she did emerge, drank a LOT of water, ate, used the gigantic cat box we have…and did mostly normal catly things for the evening. Then this morning, a lawn mower went by outside the window. Even though we’re on the 4th floor, the loud noise activated her PTSD once again.
I called the vet to see if there’s anything we could do to help her (besides Rescue Remedy and remaining calm ourselves), and she suggested as an emergency backup that she’d write a scrip for Xanax, just for us to have. We can’t really anticipate loud noises and give it to her before they happen, but we might use it for the move into…
…the newly renovated house that’s less than two miles from our home. It’s on a hill looking down at the lovely northern part of our lake. There’s lots of room there, and it’s in a nice neighborhood. There’s a 20 foot lighted, cascading waterfall out back, and decking up higher that has an even better view of the lake.
The housing company is going to furnish it for us as well, and we’ll be there for 8 months at least.
In the interim, I need to start finding and interviewing contractors. I’m in the process of going over a 144-page spreadsheet with every single item that was in my house on it. It’s weird, to say the least; seeing the contents of my altar reduced to impersonal descriptions of “decorative items.”
At some point, I need to go in the house to fetch my crystals and feathers, jewelry and pottery that we made. It has to be done, and I’ll psyche myself up for it sometime soon. Gotta wear my boots for that, both literally and metaphorically speaking. It’s probably all dried up by now, but ash and soot is everywhere. I’ll need a flashlight, too. Gotta go buy one.
It’s weird, having to go buy things that we pretty much just normally have around in the normal course of life.
It’s going to be a rather large undertaking moving from this hotel suite to the house. We’ve been accumulating the aforementioned things for nearly a month now, and it’s not like it all neatly packs away into pretty luggage. I’ll meet with the folks delivering furniture to our temporary digs on the 30th, and when that’s all done, I’ll go fetch the girls along with some comforting and necessary items to bring over.
They can start to explore and settle in while I go empty out this spacious, multi-room hotel accommodation. I don’t need to do it all in one day, either…but I probably will.
We don’t want to leave Nova alone at all. She does have anxiety when either one of us leaves the room, or even leaves the bed. Nova’s happiest and most relaxed times are when we’re all on the bed, we on our computers and she between us, sleeping…maybe under a blanket I saved from home.
However it sounds, actually, Nova is the sole survivor of a traumatic and terrifying experience…and her well being is really the top priority for us.
Anyway, just 5 more days until we embark on the next leg of this Unexpected Journey.
Thank you for all the loving thoughts and prayers you’ve sent our way. Your financial contributions have been such a blessing as well. May all that you’ve given to help us and to keep this blog going be returned to you in myriad ways, multiplied to the highest degree possible.