Out With the Old and In With the New

Happy New Year! I certainly hope this year is better than 2011 was. I would like to forget most of that year and look forward to better things cause 2011 was not very kind to us. Jimmy was out of work for about nine months. We had to scrimp, beg and borrow just to make ends meet. That was not fun at all.

Now he has a new job making some good money with a plumbing company. But would you believe that on the 2nd of December just as we were about to catch up on things and look forward, he work van was stolen out of our parking lot! That was a blow because all his tools and equipment were stolen. That was several thousand dollars lost. Of course the insurance company will pay for some of it but we won't get the full value of things. Jimmy was heartbroken because some of the tools were his dad's and are no longer made. He was really upset too, because a tool set that I gave him for Christmas the first year we were married was part of the loss too. We are still waiting for word from the insurance company. Who knows how long that will take.

We lost two friends late in 2011. Jimmy's best friend died of throat cancer. It was sad to see a big man reduced to a shell of himself. Then we lost our dog Rowdy. He was only 11 years old. We took him to the vet but were told they would have to put him in the hospital for a couple of days but they could not say for sure if he would survive. And when we were told he would have to be by himself, we decided to take him home and let him die surrounded by family. Now he is with Lady in doggie Heaven.

On the bright side Jimmy's daughter surprised us with another puppy for Christmas. We really didn't want another dog so soon and certainly not a puppy. We thought we'd wait a while and get another dachshund about six months old. But Daisy looked so lonely. We could tell that she was lost without Rowdy. That is when Amanda surprised us with an 8 week old puppy named Ginger. She got her at a local animal shelter. Though she is not a dachshund like we wanted she is cute. But she is so tiny. I am always afraid I'll step on her. The papers the animal shelter gave us said she is a chihuahua. I guess I'll get used to her. I've never really wanted a dog of this breed, but I will not send her back. As long as she gets along with Daisy we'll keep her. She is already growing on us. We'll just have to wait for another dachshund later.

Hopefully this year will have more happiness and be better for us. I'm going to try to look forward to better times. As the baseball player Satchel Paige once said, "Never look back, something could be gaining on you". So, onward through the fog to a happy new year to us all. Right?