Chillax, Pokemon No, Charlie
I made a last minute vacation request to take Monday off. My work anniversary date is approaching in mid-August and I have a week of vacation I need to use up before then. I used the day to mostly chill, only helping Cindy do a few chores around the house and little else. The rest of the day I mostly did whatever I felt like doing which included watching YouTube videos, playing Overwatch/Hearthstone, and reading a few more chapters of my third Warcraft novel. I felt a bit uncomfortable not accomplishing more during the day but I survived.
Unless you have been living under a rock you have probably heard about the latest craze, Pokemon Go, a game for your smartphone. It basically uses your phone’s GPS and camera to superimpose a Pokemon universe onto your surroundings. The end result is people wandering around the streets, staring at their screens trying to capture virtual “pets” and discover other stuff. I have heard proponents of the game say it is great because it gets an increasingly sedentary society to get off their ass and walk around outdoors, delivering an exercise benefit to the end user. The caveat is the person is experiencing the outdoors while staring at their phone which seems contradictory and dangerous as people ignore their surroundings.
I can say with 100% certainty that I will not install the game out of principal alone. I hear it is “fun”, I hear it is “addicting”, but that does nothing to influence my decision. Anything that requires me to walk the streets staring at my phone like a screen zombie just is not the sort of entertainment I will ever be looking for. If I see you walking down the sidewalk flicking Pokemon balls at virtual beings just know that a little part of me is hoping you walk face first into a pole.
I got a very sad email last night from my dad that one of his three dogs, Charlie, had died yesterday. Charlie was found by my dad and Teresa a little less than 4 years ago wandering around. He was in rough shape and Dad assumed he had a pretty difficult life up until that point, more than likely living outside full time. He also had a bit of a mean streak that would come out unexpectedly.
When we met him during our last winter PA trip he was a little sketchy when he first met us but by the time we left he was much better, letting me pet him as much as I wanted. Sadie and he got along as well, playing a bunch along with Dad and Teresa’s other dogs, Maggie and Clara.
Well in recent conversations I had with dad he said that Charlie was having some mobility problems with his back legs, something I was very familiar with because of what Nicki went through. In the last few months dad had taken Charlie to the vet a number of times. Yesterday while dad was outside doing stuff Charlie was out there hanging around, trying to be part of stuff like he normally did. He got tired and was cooling off in the shed. A little later my step mom found Charlie dead in the yard.
I know how much dad loves his dogs so I knew he was crushed by Charlie’s demise. I waited until this morning to call him although I knew not nearly enough time had passed to soften the blow. As I expected Dad was in rough shape. I tried the best I could to make him know I understood how he felt based on what we went through with Nicki. I said Charlie was lucky to find a loving home like he and my step mom provided, even later in Charlie’s life. Most of the conversation I spent just listening, allowing dad to get out some of the painful emotions that surround the death of a loved one, it’s all you can really do.
The only other thing I could offer was that with time the pain will slowly subside although the sense of loss will always be a part of you. I still think of Nicki and my mom quite often. When I do it still will glass over my eyes with tears in a matter of seconds. Death, pain, and loss is all a part of life. The older you get the more frequently you are reminded of it. R.I.P Charlie, you will be missed. I am glad he got a chance to give and receive love the last few years of his life.