What a wonderful, lazy, happy day. Sure, I slept far later than I imagined I would, partly because of daylight savings time and partly because I was just exhausted after a busy, exciting, nerve-wracking week. But once I finally joined the living, on a warm, sunny morning, I came down to find a relaxed and smiling man. Over the course of the day, I have managed to extract more hugs and kisses out of him than I have in the last three months combined while he was still at work (and several of them were even unsolicited). One would think a huge pile of stress has suddenly been lifted from his shoulders. I think I'm going to like this next phase of our lives.
We are getting into the habit of letting Zoe outside during the early part of the day. She seems a lot calmer when she's allowed to run off a little energy in the front yard, and she gets her "me time" away from the other cats who don't like her so much. In the week or so since we started doing this every day, the number of fights and screaming matches between cat cliques has dropped by half. The rest of the Pride is a little jealous of Zoe's freedom, but it's almost lizard hunting season, so they will get their opportunity to play in the Park soon enough. Things are so much more laid back around here, Zoe has even started cuddling with me on my left side (she had been ignoring me for weeks), at the same time Athena perches on my right. But the Zoe-loving I'm getting is nothing compared to how much she has been snuggling her human pet. She clings to her daddy, climbing all over him, mashing keys on his computer (but lucky for him, he figured out how to un-pause his Civilization game last week when she froze it up completely for an hour), and generally demonstrating her ownership of him. As happy as I have been all weekend, watching the muscles in my man's face lose all tension, Zoe is doubly happy that her human feels like he has all the time in the world to sit still while she hugs him.
The weather was perfect today. It was sunny and warm, with the promise of spring in the air. I stood and watched while the man powerwashed the side of the garage and around the chimney. It's a relief watching the vestiges of winter fall away. A few fronds of ferns are starting to unfurl. The first couple leaves have opened up on the hydrangeas (and they are adorably tiny). The big knockout roses are just beginning to push out those tiny red leaf spikes, which means this week I will be out with the pruning shears. I promise I will wait until I get clearance from my doctor on Tuesday, but I need to start immediately after that on the roses. My energy is returning, and with it comes my enthusiasm to get my hands dirty. My Park missed me, and I missed my Park. I'm looking forward to the next few months.
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