Monday, September 5th, 2022

              We put our oldest pup, Munchkin, to sleep Saturday morning.
         His health had been in rapid decline the last several weeks,
         which coupled with his dementia, epilepsy, and congenital
         blindness led us to the decision. We scheduled it for the first
         day of the US Labor Day weekend, to give us some time to grieve.
         I am still not convinced we made the right call, but it is too
         late to reconsider now.

              The girls do not seem to be taking it very hard. Libby, our
         youngest, went out to the car looking for him when we got home,
         but didn't seem disappointed not to find him. Izzy, the second
         oldest, seemed to think we had just left him in the back yard all
         weekend. She has lost most of her mobility to degenerative
         myelopathy, but she kept casting glances at the gate when she was
         outside. I finally carried her back there this morning, and after
         a quick glance around she seemed satisfied that he was not there.
         I think they both considered him something of a nuisance, so I am
         not surprised.

              My executive dysfunction seems to have cleared up some since
         getting a rudimentary lab set back up. Having something to look
         forward to doing when the day is over is probably a big help in
         that regard. I made a point to clear out a space in the garage
         several days ago so I could get back to some of my projects and
         keep myself busy this weekend, since I know otherwise I would
         have most likely just sat on the couch and spiraled into a ball
         of despair. Instead, I broke out the new orbital sander I bought
         a few months ago and picked up my wooden creeper rebuild, a
         project I started back at the beginning of June. I made good
         progress, and should be done in a few days if I'm able to stick
         to it this time.

              My SO said she needed to get out of the house, so we hit up
         a couple of our usual thrift stores and discount stores. I found
         a Smith-Corona word processor I think I might be able to do
         something interesting with, as well as a small, mostly intact
         1980s-model Craftsman bandsaw, mounted to a well-built steel and
         plywood table, in addition to a couple of other little knick
         knacks. I haven't been picking up much of anything on our recent
         trips, since it feels kind of silly to buy something when I don't
         have the space for it, but these were exceptional finds and I
         suspect we were both hoping for a bit of retail therapy.

              Between the holiday and my (short) upcoming vacation, this
         will be a very short work week for me. I am hoping to keep up the
         productivity at home I have been able to acheive the last few
         weeks. Perhaps I will even be able to get back in the habit of
         regularly making these entries, haha.

              -Prokyonid