..as a photo assistant. Still, I’m really excited about this assignment. Kevin Horan is a great photographer with whom I’ve assisted a handful of times. I can’t mention exactly what we will be doing, but let me just say it has to do with MONKEYS!

I love me some monkeys.

Cheeky monkey at the Hannuman Temple in Shimla.

Going on a road trip to see beautiful canyons, ancient ruins, eat good food, camp, and visit good friends and family.

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Archives of previous posts now works. You can now read my postings from my trip around the world. Enjoy!

In Iowa visiting family and friends. heading to NYC in a couple of days to visit more friends and hopefully show my portfolio around. I’m quickly trying to update my website which is in DIRE need of it. My idea that it would only take a “few hours” has become a much bigger overhaul. The most important thing that’s happened since I’ve last written is that I’ve fallen for a fantastic woman in Seattle. She’s beautiful in so many ways and we seem like a really good match. Suddenly my life feels entirely blessed once again…I only wish I was getting more photo work and had a place to live. Since she is in Seattle, I will be too, at least for the time being. I won’t be heading down to San Francisco in August as I’d rather be with this woman than anywhere else in the world. Being with her feels like traveling.

Good morning! Today is the day! I find myself being aware that everything I do is the last time I’ll do it in the house. Had my last night of sleep, took my last shower, made my last cup of tea, and now I’m writing my last blog in this house. I have a lot to do so I’ll keep it short with a quote from W.H. Murray given to me last night by Miss Michaela Murphy:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: ‘Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.’”
-W.H. Murry, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition

Off I go into uncharted territories…

Almost finished packing! I’ve been packing for weeks and am surrounded by boxes. Soon I will walk out my front door for the last time. It’s bittersweet, this huge change. On the one hand I know it’s for the best, as I’ve been stagnating here for years… but on the other hand, I love this place. It’s been my home for so long. I have so many memories here and returning to Seattle without a home to come back to is going to be…difficult. So, for all my friends who are wishing me a bon voyage… please call me when I get back on APRIL 24th, and check up on me because I WILL BE FREAKED OUT about not being able to come back to 419 12th Ave East. I’ll try to write once more before I go start the new chapter of my life. If your name is Kourtney, I’d especially like to hear from you. You are why I started living here in the first place, and I miss you.

I can’t believe it’s been nearly 2 months since Grover died. It still sucks. I’m trying to get things done, but find that my scattered mind and sad heart aren’t making it easy. Still, I am plugging away at the photos. Almost done I promise. I’m currenty moving my website to a new host because my old host has become unreliable and has crappy customer service. The trasition has taken me all day…and it’s still not done.

Returning from a long trip around the world is very hard. However, I had the cushion of returning to my old place and was able to start working right away on remodeling a house. But the best part of coming home was, in a word, Grover. He made my return home a joy. I was so fearful that something would happen to him while I was away. I missed him a lot while I was gone, and coming home early wasn’t really so bad because it meant seeing my Grover again. He’s been my constant home companion for the last 14 1/2 years. I love the little guy so much. He has gone through more of life with me than most other people, and it’s not a stretch to say that he is my kid, and I am his dad. So it is with great pain and sadness that I now have to live without him.

Grover died on Saturday morning. I’m still in shock from it, because it all happened so fast. He stopped eating so I took him in. After a blood test the following day came back with alarming levels, I decided to take him to the emergency care center where specialists could try to help him. They did tons of tests on him and still couldn’t figure out why his abdomen was filling up with fluid, and why his liver appeared to have normal levels but wasn’t working properly. He was put on antibiotics, but they didn’t seem to be helping. By last Thursday, after 3 days in the hospital, I was faced with Grover quickly slipping away. He wasn’t getting enough food in him, still no diagnosis, he had developed a heart murmur, and there was little else they could do except exploratory surgery to see if they could find anything. I wanted everything possible to be done to help the little guy and said that if it might save him, then of course go ahead with the surgery. That evening I went in to see Grover again, and his health had deteriorated sharply over the last day. I was fearful that he might not even make it through the surgery. The surgeon called the morning of his scheduled operation and expressed a lot of hesitation about going ahead with the surgery. Grover had gone downhill very quickly. Even if Grover survived the surgery, which was in doubt, the surgeon wasn’t at all sure he could do anything once he got in there that would help Grover. So, reluctantly, I decided not to put Grover through that. The next option, other than putting Grover to sleep, was to try giving him steroids to see if it would stop the inflammatory fluids in his abdomen, and get him on a feeding tube. This also meant putting Grover out for about 15 minutes while they put the tube in. So they did this on Saturday morning. When I went in to see him Saturday evening. I was taken to the back where he lay in his cage, too drugged out and weak to even lift his head. He looked completely out of it. The doctor said that he was still drugged out from the anethesia, but he was also just really really sick. His blood pressure was dangerously low. I began to doubt if I should have even had them put the feeding tube in. Maybe I should have just put him down. But now that the tube was in, and we were trying something new with the steriods, I figured it was worth a try… as long as Grover wasn’t suffering. Was he suffering? I don’t really know. Probably he was. Cats don’t cry and they don’t talk, so you can only guess at how they are feeling, and what they would want. I knew that if he didn’t get better overnight, I would have to put him to sleep. I went to bed after calling in to see if his blood pressure had gone up, it hadn’t…it had dropped even more, so they were going to give him some dopamine to try to get his pressure back up. Dopamine also meant that he’d feel a little better. I slept about 4 hours that night. I awoke at 5 am and felt an overwhelming fear that he was dead. I cried most of the morning. I was afraid to call the hospital. I figured no news was good news. At 10:15 AM a doctor called. Grover was going though cardiac arrest. There was still a tiny heartbeat; they wanted to know if I wanted them to try to resuscitate him. I told them to let him go. It was time. We had tried our best to save the little guy but there was just nothing we could do. I went and got his body and brought him back home. He was still warm, still soft, still. Shane and Dianna and Rachel and Lyle attended the burial in the back yard. Grover was finally back home. Before I put him in the ground I kissed his sweet face one last time and smelled his soft black fur one last time. I will miss that boy for a long long time. He was a sweet, loving cat and he brought a lot of joy and love into this world.

Now I don’t know what to do. I can’t stand to be home, but I can’t stand to go out. Home just doesn’t feel like home without my Grover here. After living here for nearly 15 years, I think it’s time to move.

I’m back in Seattle. I’ve unpacked only the basics, leaving most of my boxes of “stuff” unpacked in the basement. I just don’t want to fill my house up with so much stuff again. It’s strange being home, yet not strange at all. It’s hard for me to explain it. I really don’t feel like I’ve stopped traveling yet. Tomorrow, I am flying to Iowa where I will get a car and drive back to Seattle. So I still have 2 weeks of travel ahead of me. Maybe when I get back I’ll finally feel more settled. I have yet to write about my last month of traveling around the world. I had some amazing experiences in Dahab Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Palastine and Cyprus. Writing about them and updating my photos is a priority for me, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen until after I get back from Iowa. So any of you who are wondering if I am ever going to add anything more on this blog the answer is YES! I have so many more photos to show you all. So many, in fact, that I will need several days just to go through them and pick the ones I want to show you. So please be patient…photos and stories will come soon enough.

I miss my kitty. I will be coming home soon Grover! However, I will be
going to Iowa soon after I return to attend my (gulp) 20 year high school
reunion and to buy a car to drive back to Seattle. The whole trip will take
me about 2 weeks to do, so…

Anyone want to house sit for a couple of weeks while I am in Iowa? The
dates are: July 17th-31st.