Saturday, January 21, 2012

Tipping points

This week has seen several tipping points, significant thresholds, points of no return, coincide in different parts of my life. None of them life-changing, but they all add up to make this a week of unsettling change.

This week, we finally had to have one of our cats put to sleep. It's always a tough decision, especially when it's not clear-cut and an animal is just getting steadily more ill. This one's had cancer eating away at her nose for years, starting off as nothing more than discoloration, but gradually eating into her face. This past year saw a noticeable change, and the last month she'd been deteriorating faster. This week, we decided her time had come.

On another front entirely, today we switched our cable and internet over to Telus. Lots to get used to, but things are looking good so far. I am relieved to have my wi-fi back again to post this.

And last weekend I passed 50% in my novel revision. Now I'm on a roll, and also have a realistic idea of how fast I can plough through this, I am aiming for 100% by the end of February. The word count is still inching downwards, which is good because I need a few thousand words to play with for a couple of scene additions, and I still want to stay below 100k.

Oh, and I've got addicted to Minecraft. I have an innate need to create things, and right now I have no building projects on the go and am not writing original content, so this is helping to keep me sane through the revision process.

12 comments:

Kimberlee Turley said...

Losing a pet sort of feels like losing a sibling, but if her quality of life wasn't that good, you're being charitable by thinking of the her needs and not just how much you'll miss her when she's gone.

Charmaine Clancy said...

Sounds like 2012 is gearing up to be busy and full for everyone. Sorry about your cat, went through the same thing last year. It's tough but I believe relieving a pet's pain shows true friendship.
Wagging Tales

Sarah Tokeley said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your cat. Even when it's the right thing to do, it doesn't make it any easier. Thinking of you.

Anonymous said...

So sorry to hear of the loss of your cat. Always so hard to have to make that final decision.

unikorna said...

oh so sad. It's so painful when they go..how old was she?
I wish you good luck with your book and lots of good inspiration...

Botanist said...

Thank you for your kind thoughts, everyone. It's never an easy thing to do. We keep reminding ourselves that she was an old lady - approx. 16 years (we can't be sure because the folks at the animal shelter where we got her 12 years ago weren't sure of her exact age.)

We took her in for an opinion at the start of the month because we were getting worried about her condition. We knew then that it wouldn't be long, and we kept close watch for signs of change. As soon as we saw her go downhill, we knew that was it.

Danette said...

My son loves Minecraft. He was using a friend's account so I got him his own for Christmas. He uses all his TV time for the game- which I don't mind a bit.

Botanist said...

It was my son who got us started on this, Danette. We don't use the full version, just slimmed-down versions on the tablet, iPhone, and iPod. The main thing is that you can save your world and come back to it later, and we can hook into our home wi-fi and visit each other's worlds.

klahanie said...

Hi Ian,
I'm ever so sorry about the heartbreaking dilemma you must have experienced in regards to having your cat put to sleep.
And I'm sure it's a satisfying feeling having passed the halfway mark in your novel revision. You have my utmost respect for your determination.
I'm very aware of your new internet service provider. Some are on Rogers yet, 'Telus' about it
:)
Have a good week.
Gary

Jean Davis said...

Sorry to hear about your cat. :(

Congrats on your novel revision progress! All that revising is a lot of work. And yay for wi-fi!

My kids both love Minecraft. Darn addictive game, from what I see of their zombie-like faces over their laptops.

Botanist said...

Thanks Gary, we're still settling in with our new service and finding out where things are different from what we've been used to for the past 7 years.

Jean, Minecraft is certainly addictive, even the not-fully-functional version we have. We all join up in someone's world for guided tours and games of tag!

JKA said...

Congrats on the revision progress. Also, you are the third person in as many days to mention enjoying Minecraft. My resolve to avoid it and same myself from another distraction is quickly failing.

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