Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Tuesday, June 22, 2021 -- Mattie died 612 weeks ago today. 

Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2009. That day we took Mattie to a friend's house. She set up a big bubble machine and Mattie used the fly swatter he got at his 7th birthday party to pop all the bubbles. It was a few hours of normalcy in the midst of total chaos with his treatment and its various side effects.

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 33,563,670
• Number of people who died from the virus: 602,441

This afternoon we went to the house to do more work. We have our hands full with about a thousand things! Sunny came back on Monday from boarding very anxious, so he is trailing me around and is being extra demanding. So I decided to take him for a walk in the new neighborhood. Keep in mind that I am directionally challenged. Sure enough, I got lost and walked quite a distance away from the house. Peter literally drove to pick us up, that is how far I was!

Meanwhile, apparently Sunny found a box turtle in the backyard. I am a city girl, and all these new creatures put me a bit out of my comfort zone. We have frogs, seen deer in the neighborhood, and I believe based on the remnants, we have raccoons. I have now become an expert in raccoon scat. This fellow does his business right on our stone patio. It's at least a once a week occurrence.

We spent about four hours weeding part of the backyard. The previous homeowner clearly didn't do this and everything in our opinion needs to be cut back and shaped. 

We have piled of debris everywhere! This is only the tip of the iceberg really!

We will continue to do more, but it was a good start. It was easier to do this today because we had no contractors coming over. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we have back to back meetings with people coming over to give us estimates. 

Frankly you couldn't even see the fountain with all the weeds and vegetation. It is a beautiful backyard, and I think with our love and attention it will really thrive.