Yes, I took the afternoon off. Goodwill, Lowe's for cabinet hardware and miscellaneous, storage place for packing boxes (which will be recycled for Girl's move in another couple of months), post office, groceries. 3.5 hours of errands and I feel MUCH better now.

The day started badly - after the morning post I did my usual getting ready for work ritual - and didn't look in the direction of my betta fish. My normal schedule is to feed the fishies on my way out the door for work, and that's when I discovered that Redfish had died sometime in the night. I was shocked - he'd been fluttering at me happily yesterday afternoon, and I told him what a sweet little fish he was. If you've never had a betta, trust me, they have personalities as individual as any fur-bearing critter.

I bought fish for my husband when he was confined to bed for so many hours a day. It started when our daughter brought home her dorm fish for a Christmas visit freshman year, right after my husband had come home on hospice (the first time - confusing, isn't it) and we put him in the bedroom with her father to keep the fish away from the cats. My husband became fascinated with the fish, and enjoyed watching him and then getting up on his walker and caring for him. So when the fish went back to college I went to Petsmart and brought home another betta, and it was sweet and friendly and my husband bonded with it. Weirdly and somewhat creepily, it developed a tumor and died about a year later. So I bought Bluefish. Bluefish, is, how can I put this - an asshole. (In fact, that's what my husband called him.) He's aggressive and cranky. So because he was personality-impaired, he was joined (in a separate bowl, of course) by Redfish, who was the prettiest betta I've ever seen - solid ruby red, he glowed like a jewel and was the friendliest, fluttery-est little fish, he loved to be talked to, he loved to be fed, he was just a happy little fish. I noticed lately that he was eating less but he seemed chipper and happy, even as late as yesterday when I got home from work. Whatever killed him took him fast. I'm going to miss him.

Bluefish, OTOH, is still going strong, and flares his gills and gives me a dirty look every time I glance in his direction.

I'm done with bettas after Bluefish. I have the goldfish who aspire to be koi in the backyard pond and that's plenty of fish. Bluefish is of course too mean to die, but eventually he will succumb to extreme old fish age, or something. That's it for me and bettas. They had a place in the household at a very bad time, but it's not a thing I need to keep going.

And I've gotten used to Bess rattling around in my head, reading the same things, thinking about the same issues, having tendonitis when I have it - but it's getting crowded in there lately. (I guess that explains all the voices....) I've been contemplating a poncho- something neutral and light - and sonofagun, Bonne Marie was at work designing just about exactly what I was contemplating, and, God bless her, she's going to offer it as a pattern. It's just what I wanted, and I can stop looking now. I continue to marvel that design isn't her day job.