Bye Bye, Oscar

Last weekend our daughter and three-year-old granddaughter, both of whom had been living with us for the past year and a half, moved into a place of their own.

It’s so quiet around our house now.

I virtually never miss people, and I’m not particularly a dog person, but when they moved out, they took with them Oscar, their eleven-year-old dog.

I’ve never told this to a soul, but I used to have imaginary conversations with Oscar, largely around that fact that there we were two older guys just enjoying our final days together.  I like to believe he understood.  Isn’t that what life is about – connection?  Our connection to the world, to each other, to our homes, and our pets.

Last year one of my sons said to me, “You know, Dad, if we continue to see each other once a month over the next 15 years that will be about 200 visits for the rest of our lives.”

Whoa!  But ultimately, those are the limitations we all face.

This is the best reason to make the most of each and every day, because the number of days we each have is finite.

After all, if we’re lucky enough to live for 100 years, we still only have 36,500 days to spend together, to love and be loved – and to make the most of our time.

Good bye Oscar. I’ll miss our chats.

Alan