Sandie & Mister Knightly @ Home

Welcome

Wish for the New Millennium:
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy, and enough money to buy gifts!!

Past History:

2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

Thought for 2019:

"Fear is that little dark room where negatives are developed"
- Michael Pritchard

Dcember - The Christmas Letter this year is just this. Life can be over in a flash... live accordingly. Remembering Sue Apelt.

November - a month full of stuff happening. Lisa Yore & Gustov came to visit as did John Belfield of the UK. I ate lunch or dinner with a bunch of folks including Jean Tierra, Rick & Tom, the Morminos and Paul & Aleth. Thanksgiving with Marcia and Bill and Tim & Randy and Ed for a separate dinner. Lots of art too, but best of all, Mister Knightly got to go to the beach and I got to visit the Kails

OCTOBER - Italy! a whole month of beauty, friendship and and wine.... and art!

I almost didn't want to leave...

SEPTEMBER - This was a month of getting ready to spend a month in Italy - I lunched with Susan Hunt went to the movies with Barb & Gary - brunched with Penny Swing - and went to an opera event with Sydni...

AUGUST - A month filled with birthdays, August inspired me to paint birthday cards! I began the month attending the "graduation" lunch for the new Tai Chi students. They are a very nice group of folks and it was interesting to talk a bit with some of them. Later in the month I saw the play Fun Home with Marcia, Bill, Tim, Randy, Joan, Cheryl, Ed and Mike. The middle soprano was hard for me to listen to as I felt she was always sharp and piercing, oversinging for the samll theater. the play itself was filled with stereotypes, but was most likely a fair rundown of the author's pain. Later in the month I went for drinks with the A&W gang. I have opened the apartment at SunnySide Up to a friend of Letty's sister... i confess that I cannot really like him, though I do try. He manages to piss me off in lots of little ways and i am counting the days until his departure in September, and fearful of what I may discover when he is gone. Docent training progresses and I am feeling more secure about my ability to carry it off. But two really fabulous things happened - the garage was finally finished and Mister Knightly turned 13 and seemed to be pretty healthy in the doing of it. - back in June I had fears that he wouldn't make it to his birthday. He had steak for dinner to celebrate! Here are photos and the birthday cards:

JULY - Mister Knightly is not the same... he's better than before! How is this possible? Somehow, in July he woke up and began to eat again. I have changed his food to more home cooking and a new, smaller kibble and now his energy level is fantastic. He plays like a puppy and he plays often... he is enthusiastic about his walks and takes them more briskly. I need to be careful not to let him over do it because he does run out of gas a bit sooner than a puppy but otherwise I feel as if a stone has been lifted from my heart. Otherwise July was easy. Fireworks on the 4th were great. Saw Damon Fowler twice and he was great both times. My neighbors, The Morminos, came over for drinks, I went to Marcia's to see Amanda and attended Cool Art. Saw the new Tarrantino movie with the Kellers and loved it! Read several books and painted another fox. Tai Chi was delightful as we completed all 108 steps and when I can get myself into "the right space" it is so soothing to do a complete set. Docent training progresses and I try hard to learn all about the A&C movement, knowing that when it opens, the museum will be filled with visitors who know far more than I do... kind of scary. I have a new guest up stairs named Ky and he will be with me until mid September, seems nice... friend of a friend. Brennan returned and I now have a garage door I can open with a remove. The sunflowers were a great idea for summer!

JUNE - This was the month when I was forced to recognize that Mister Knightly would not live forever. He quit eating. Part Lab and not hungry is one of the basic warning signs... after 36 hours of no food I took him to the Vet and they ran all their tests. It was not his regular vet but one of her associates - I felt something was wrong with either his mouth or throat but she could find nothing... in fact even with 3 x-rays and blood, stool and urine tests, she could find nothing. I bought roasted chicken from Publix and he ate a bit of that, raw hamburger, anything I could get him to swallow, he wouldn't even consider dog food. I decided to get a 2nd opinion when his next vet visit was due, but two days later his pelvic region went into spasm and so we rushed off to the new vet. She was wonderful and diagnosed nerve damage - put him on meds and the balance of the month was spent trying to stabilize his eating (she also found nothing wrong with mouth or throat). After three weeks of this, whatever was wrong with his mouth had improved but the meds sapped his appetite. At month end some stability was achieved and July will be the test.

Otherwise the month was normal. The conductor came and went and i almost never saw him. Marcia, Bill, Tim, Randy and I went to see Buyer & Cellar at Free Fall. Tai Chi classes continued and docent training too. Tommy, Doug & I went to see Tedschi Trucks at Al Lange and I did some drawings that made me happy from the calendar Mary & Bob gave me for Christmas. At the gym, Gary turned 75 and Lon turned 90 - while Buzz & Betty were celebrated early for their 87th.

MAY - Ah May! What a long and fun filled month. It began with Tai Chi classes. Turns out I like Tai Chi and and managed to get to 7 or 8 during the course of the month. May 4th was Tim's birthday and Cindy hosted a brunch for the May Babies. I am so proud of Cindy these days and it was a lovely brunch. The next day was my May Babies celebration and we all went to see Spamilton and it was a laugh riot... then to Red Mesa for a Cinco de Mayo dinner. It was everything I could hope for. Plus I got the sweetest Thank You note from Marcia that touched me greatly. Docent classes continued and I did a presentation on a piece of furniture that went fairly well plus I got to know my study partners, Susan & Pam better when they came to lunch. Cheryl from the gym and I went to see Anastasia... I forgot it was the Disney version and wasn't as happy as I could have been as a result, but it was pretty. Brennan and I cleaned the garage and put in new cabinets - next month we get the new garage door installed. The following week Diane came into town and we spent 3 days at the beach. We saw all the usual bird suspects at the dock in the morning and the prettiest night heron I've every seen. She was here two weeks and a bit and it was great to have a girlfriend to pal around with. We had drinks with the A&Ws and saw a good movie and ate out a lot, shopped, even did cocktails at the Canopy. I am hosting the Asst. Conductor of the St Pete Opera in SunnySideUp and he arrived on the 21st. He is nice, dedicated to music and very quiet. He'll be here until July. I also got to know Dan and Madeline better - they took care of Mr. K while I was at the beach. Nice kids. And to end the month Ben, the boyfriend of Kayla Harbietner dropped by unexpectedly and we sat and talked for over 2 hours... wide ranging conversations about history and the world of big ideas and anything else that crossed our minds. I was flying on a natural high and hope he will return.

APRIL - The month began with a nice long phone call with my friend Pat from grade school! She was always such a dear person when i was a kid and it seems as if she still is. i hope some day we can see each other again. That weekend was Marcia's music party and as always it was great fun and i even got to dance. The next day I went to the Orchid show with Wade and Meghan and I've concluded that I'm probably not going to be an orchid grower. Then of Saturday the 13th I went ot a requiem mass for Terry Cunniff. Palm Sunday I hosted the Egg Coloring party - it was our 27th year. Blues Fest was this month too, and Boz Scaggs was terrific! I sat with the A&W guys plus Letty a& Julianne. Much Ado About Nothing was in the park and Meghan, Letty and I went to the opening night. Lunch with Tim the next day to celebrate my new cornices and the Main Sail on the weekend. I bought a lovely watercolor print for my wonderful new bedroom. The following week Sydni and i went to the Dali for their book club meeting, then to Mahaffey for the Orchestra concert and then to The hanger for lunch... nice! American Stage's Mama Mia in the park ended the month on a happy note.

February - March I've been very bad about keeping up my web site. I thought I was up to date but see I have been a slacker...

In February I renovated the bathroom - the guy I chos to do it did a nice job but way over budget so in the end I was not totally happy with it... still everything you do in an old house like this is an improvement.

MARCH - was an interesting month with they weather going from winter to summer every few days. I saw Hamilton with Marcia, Bill & David and went to a fund raiser for the Shakespeare players. I hung out with the A&W gang and had a short visit from the Kails. Susan and I did a bunch of junkin' and of course, Art in Bloom!

JANURARY - The birthday month! Mary & Bob's visit continued on the the 8th and I was happy to have had them as my first guests. We went to a horrible concert at the Palladium and down to Palmetto for lunch with Susan and we did a group dinner at the Melting Pot. All very nice. After they left Diane and I got together for some fun, and we saw a movie, sat around my fire pit (only a real friend will indulge you on that) had a birthday dinner with T&R and then went to the A&W afterward... a day at Caddy's too but the weather this month is always dicey and there were several shitty days too and then she was also gone. I saw a fabulous concert by Pink Martini with Lettie, did some junkin' with Susan and attended two classes to become a docent, which is on my New Years resolution list. So now I am 72. I finally got back to the gym and I could tell I'd been away 6 weeks. It will take some time to rebuild my energy levels. A nice party at Dave & Mary's and the Bethel Art show rounded out the month. So here I am at 72 and trying to get back to feeling like 28. still trying to paint & draw too.