Life, and how it goes on.

I haven't written all week. No real reason. It's lonely here without Kerm, and we were lucky to have his company for as long as we did. You know I loved that dog, I know you loved that dog. What more is there to say? :-( I can tell you that the pace of life slowed on Monday long enough to give him a peaceful and respectful exit -- He had more people at his funeral than a lot of people, I'm sure. And he gets to be down at the farm, near Rudy and other well loved dogs of our friends and neighbors. Henry handed him down to Jeff, who placed him in the hole, and we all said something nice about what a great dog he was.

Monday night I felt sort of giddy almost. Relieved to have it over with and to find that even though a dear dog has died, the world continues to spin. But still lonely. It was odd to have one less person(ality) to care for in the house. No one to let out, no one to carry downstairs, etc. So we went out to eat.

We went to Chilis, and I tell you, that place was conspiring against me. You know those oddball cigarette disposal unit thingies they have outside public places? Like where one can deposit their smoke before going in, and it falls down a tube and down into the bottom of the thing. One of these:



Anyways. I noticed that it was still smoking as we walked by, and I blanched. At work, we have to walk past one of these to get in the building and sometime someone won't put out their smoke before dropping it in and it'll smoke and cook up this completely repulsive smell. SO. NASTY.

They seated us near the kitchen, which was normally okay. But every once in awhile I'd get this super strong whiff of that ashtray stink. It turned out that we were in the path of the giant swirl of air that would blow in from the entrance to the restaraunt whenever the outside doors opened. So it would billow towards us every time someone came in the place. I bitched and bitched to my table mates about it and theorized on where the smell could be coming from. (I hadn't made the connection yet -- was thinking more about how maybe it was some sort of dishwasher on his break, propped up on a milk crate, making plans for the night on his cell phone, etc.)

So, as I was waiting for my burger to be re-cooked (I ordered well done, received medium rare), the dishwasher came rushing through the restaraunt carrying the still smoking ashtray! Through the restaraunt! so nasty. So, so nasty. I couldn't believe it. And I didn't even go into the fact my burger was raw and our server was dead behind the eyes.