ButterBoy

                                                    When we arrived in Switzerland everything was so astonishingly beautiful, orderly, and pleasing to the eye. Every neatly piled stack of wood, every smooth, symmetrical tunnel, every tidy chalet made me think of Buster.  In Italy, there weren't as many things to remind us of him, but in Switzerland, this place of patterns, symmetry, order, beautiful crystal blue lakes, and mountain hikes- it practically screamed "Come Buster! Come". He would have loved to be there.  I had a few good cries on the daily missing him, but one day I felt him really close.  On this day we were on a quest to find a good swimming spot.  We had looked one up on google, but couldn't find any parking. We had circled and circled and finally decided we would first drive down to the swim spot to...

 In February of 2024 I stepped out of character and canceled my week full of plans, including teaching my project based learning class with Andrea, to take advantage of a one week stay with my family at my neighbors time share at Otter Crest on the Oregon Coast. It ended up being the last trip our family would take together before we would lose our Buster boy.  One year later, my neighbor offered the use of her inn at Otter Crest yet again.  I decided once again to say yes. It was a very bittersweet trip. It was really epic in some ways- there was a HUGE storm, which made watching the titanic waves crashing on the shore so exciting. We lost power for an evening, and got the last open restaurant in town before it went out (best fish and chips we've ever had).  But one night- I just didn't feel much up for a game or movie night, because I just missed Buster. We watched his funeral together and it was very sweet.  On the way home from that trip, as I usually do on ...