KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

We are doing ok. So far so good. Irwin's sister is a big help. She and I have had wonderful long conversations about Irwin and we enjoy each other’s stories since she came to visit.

This morning we designed an announcement card and a thank you card. It has been very emotional because we were thinking about what to do best. We wanted to add a famous quote to the announcement card. And that turned into a long search for the perfect one, of course.

We started out with Albert Einstein, because Irwin and Albert share the same birthday and Irwin was also a brainy. Here is what we looked at:

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Then we started looking at quotes from Groucho Marx because he was Irwin's favorite comedian.

Either he's dead or my watch has stopped. (from A Day at the Races (1937))

Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... Now you tell me what you know.

But in the end we didn't use any of them. Irwin would have thought that it would be hilarious to have one those quotes on his card, but we figured they were not really appropriate for a death announcement.

Finally I found a really lovely quote that referred to a jigsaw puzzle. You might remember that Irwin collected jigsaw puzzles and his collection is gigantic - over 8,000 different puzzles.

I wonder when I can face our basement and think about what to do with his puzzles. Besides the puzzles he also owns a big collection of books and matchbox cars. Well, that is not for now but eventually I will have to think about it.

This afternoon we went to the funeral home and picked Irwin's remains up. That was probably the most bizarre situation in my life so far, especially because the guys at the funeral home were kind of creepy. My SIL's husband carried the box outside - I just couldn't. He is a really sweet guy and very comforting for me to have around with my SIL.

It is more final now – when you have a piece of paper in your hand that states that your husband is now in a box in front of you. I think it is good for me to have such a clear picture because I kept thinking that Irwin would just show up and everything would go back to normal.

The last time I saw him was at the Munich airport when he came to visit me in May. He went through the security area and up the stairs and waived at me. I stayed until I didn’t see him anymore. You wonder why you do these things.

The puppies enjoy the extra hands for petting. I told them that will probably stop once the visitors from Vermont go home.

It is good for me to see the happy dogs playing around in the backyard.