Another year has come and gone.....

... and it was a very rough one, but we have managed to keep our heads up and our sanity in tact.
I was reminded yesterday of how the universe does not care if you are prepared when it unloads a shit storm on you but if you remember not to think about it all at once and instead just do the next right thing, you will be OK.
We had plans for our fifth wedding anniversary, our first meeting with a new couples counselor, and a little surprise for Suzy, but things do not always go the way you expect them to.
Suzy's dad had called the night before to ask me to listen to a funny noise his car was making. I could not really tell exactly what the noise was over the phone but I could tell it was some sort of damaged bearing and I advised that he take it in to the repair shop first thing in the morning. He did and while it was a bearing, it was not something small (like a power steering pump or alternator) it was in fact a main engine bearing and on a car with 150k miles you just don't want to spend $5000 to keep it going. So we changed our plans and I dropped Suzy off at a friend's house to get a ride to work and I headed over to meet Jim at the Buick dealer.
To add to the confusion, Jim and Anna's cat Gimmel had a low blood sugar the day before (we think) and was not responding to a glucose injection so she needed to go to the vet to see what was going on. After hours of going from place to place Chris (Suzy's brother) finally got her in to an emergency vet for an exam. Jim and I, now checking out possible replacement cars, are also trying to find out details of the cat's condition and to top it all off Jim's cell phone starts acting up.
So, after we finish up at the dealership and get a bite to eat we head home to search the web for other cars. A short while later we get a call from the vet to find out that Gimmel is really in bad shape (not from the low blood sugar but rather from a host of other problems) unresponsive to light (a sign of a stroke) very low potassium, an irregular heartbeat, and extreme dehydration. I call Suzy and we arrange to pick her up after first stopping off at the Sprint repair center to order Jim a new phone.
Once we all finally get coordinated and meet at the vet the difficult decision is made to have the doctor euthanize Gimmel. We all said our tearful goodbyes (even Suzy's mom Anna via phone) and gave Jim a few minutes alone with the cat. Jim took it all very hard and blamed himself for not taking better care of the cat (which is silly to all of us since she is 19 years old with all kinds of health problems and they have been giving her insulin shots twice a day for years now). Jim was very close to Gimmel and said that out of all the pets they have had over the years she was the only one that was really his pet. We finished saying goodbye and the doctors took her in the back to send her on her way to heaven.
We went back to Jim and Anna's house to regroup and the decision was made that we should all go out to dinner at Provino's in honor of Gimmel and to celebrate Suzy's and my anniversary. After a nice long dinner we headed home and we were sure to give our animals some extra attention that night.
Anyway, with all that has gone on this past year we have managed to survive and we will try to continue to do the next right thing.