We’re at our beach house for the month and I’m having some unfortunate health issues. I’m sorta down and out for the count. Trying to rest up and will call the doc on Monday, so, here I am… blogging takes very little physical energy.

The Peacemaker purchased me a landscape painting course for Mother’s Day through the local art college. Classes are still all online, which is kinda cool as courses are being offered by artists who aren’t local, opening up a whole new batch of teachers. I took the course “asynchronous,” on my own schedule, as we were set to be on my Birthday Road Trip (post for a different day) for two of the four classes. Yesterday I did my color study here at the beach house. I’m hoping to start painting for real today. We’ll see.

I had intended to attend the first online class live, but as fate would have it, we had to say goodbye to my sweet golden baby girl Lily at the very same time class was going on. I miss my girl so much. As I watch other light golden retrievers play on the beach, I like to believe they are all Lily, sharing her limitless love with other families. We thought we were going to have her for a while longer, but it was not to be. She survived leukemia last year with about six doses of chemo. Earlier this year she started having nose issues. Turns out it was cancer. We took her to an oncologist in May. He said he could remove the tumor, she looked to be strong enough, but we all agreed she needed a body scan first to check for other cancers. Unfortunately the tests showed she had masses in her liver and spleen. She went downhill fast, and with the help of a special vet, just shy of her 13th birthday, she passed peacefully in our family room, where we spent so many happy days with her. It’s so painful for me to talk about. I’m sitting now on her favorite sofa, my heart is breaking.

And I’m not the only one feeling this awful loss…

Okay, enough of that melancholy. On to other people’s problems. Shortly after building commenced on the foundation of our beach house property in 2015, we met our funky next door neighbor, Kenny. He’s an odd duck and although our first couple encounters weren’t stellar, he’s grown on us. He’s a pretty messed up guy really, but aren’t we all. He and his wife are roughly our age, maybe a year or two older, and they were married the year after we were. They’re from Los Angeles, like Blue Eyes. They have four kids, three girls and a boy, around the same age as our two boys. Kenny waxes on and on about his kids, we get it, he’s a proud papa. They were actually pretty great neighbors as they rarely spent much time at their beach house, lol. A couple years ago I asked Kenny if they would be willing to rent their house to me for a vacation with my dad’s big mormon family. Kenny’s house sleeps something like 14 people (it’s much larger than ours). Even with ours, which comfortably sleeps 8, we would need at least a couple more houses to hold this big brood of nearly 40!

Kenny’s response was… “over Wendy’s dead body will I ever rent this house out!” And then, wait for it, about 18 months ago a Vacation Rental sign went up on the fence closest to our house. I honestly wanted to call Kenny and give him my condolences! But I didn’t, because, you know. I didn’t think Wendy was actually dead.

Last week we needed to text Kenny regarding a house issue, and this is his text message back: “I’m in a very dark place. I walked out on WENDY a little over a year ago. At the moment she is trying to put me in jail for contempt in our divorce. I am actively looking for a new divorce attorney. I’m in a very very dark place… “

Not really wanting to get involved. Not sure why he left her. Not sure if HE left HER, why he’s in such a dark place. Not sure that “jail” is a legit punishment for “contempt” in a divorce. They’ve been married for 30+ years. Crazy how it all goes sideways. I guess at this point he wishes she was dead, just kidding. I talked to Wendy a couple months ago. She looked fine and didn’t mention divorce. She said she decided to rent the house because it was too lucrative not to. Hmm… it was always lucrative. Interesting fact, they purchased that house cheap from a bank, who got it back due to a nasty divorce. What goes around comes around, I guess. And now my family can rent that house for vacation!

Time to go get a little natural vitamin D. It’s 70 & sunny here at the beach house! Perfect weather for me!