Weekend round-up
(No weeds were harmed in the making of this weekend.)
The following is posted not so much because I suspect anyone would find it to be of interest. No. Rather, it’s because making record of it helps me in my inevitable nostalgia phase several years hence.
Saturday started late morning with taking Catherine’s dogs for a walk. There are three dogs, too many to manage all at once, so I took the girls out first, then Jackson afterwards. Each round went around 20 minutes and I walked a total of about 2 miles. Afterwards, Catherine, Brenda, and I went to Lowe’s to pick up some touch-up paint for their interior walls. There’s something about being in big hardware stores that is just satisfying. I should explore this further. Then it was time for lunch. Annette’s was the destination of choice and holy moly! the portions were quite ample! Catherine got her usual favorite, the Scooby Doo. Biscuits & gravy over a Denver omelet with potatoes on the side. Brenda got the chicken fried steak with scrambled eggs, and I took the waitress’ recommendation and ordered the chicken club sandwich with tots and onion rings. Everything was good, but I couldn’t finish, at least not without doing harm to my stomach. Of the three entrées, Brenda’s tasted the best. Lordy, I was so full afterwards!
I went home, marshaled my strength for a bit, then met Deanna for coffee. Then it was off to Portland to meet Tiffany, Sianna, and Shaine for Geeks Who Drink Trivia at Portland Brewery.
Our team (Family Ties) was the big winner that night!
On to Sunday morning.
Went to Mass then to Keizer Sub Shop for lunch. Always delicious. After eating, I dropped off three boxes of old clothes at Goodwill. Lenten purge is on track!
Met up with Catherine and Brenda and we all went to Walmart to shop for Easter ‘basket’ contents for her family. Add in a short trip to Dollar Tree for the same purpose and we called it good.
(I did buy another solar toy for my window.)
Finally, I finished out the weekend with a load of laundry.
Couple of cousins
This is a photo of me with my cousins Reggie and Andy.
Taken at my aunt’s house following my uncle’s funeral Mass.
Now for the rest of the story
Ok, so in my earlier post, I had arrived at the church. The church itself was sort of unimpressive but the campus was pretty nice. What was impressive was the number of people in attendance. There were so many people there who loved my uncle. That was really nice. Mass seemed haphazard and rather lazily put together. I won’t get into the specifics but it was a little frustrating and disappointing. My uncle had served in the army and received military honors at the cemetery. The Church could learn a thing or three from the military. These guys understand the value and power of ritual. The lone bugle playing Taps and the words spoken to my aunt when the soldiers presented the flag to her were the most moving moments I’d witnessed in some time.
Back at the house, there was a seemingly endless influx of people bringing food or coming by to spend some time remembering my uncle. It really was a wonderful celebration of Doug’s life. I got to spend lots of good time with family.
I did sneak in a nap, and when I woke up, almost everyone had gone. I and my cousin, and a friend of his finished up the evening playing some games.
I’d hoped and intended to leave to come home at 8:00 or so, but didn’t end up leaving until 9:30. I had something to be back in Modesto for at 2:00. I was an hour late. But that’s not too bad.
Despite the long road trip down south and the rapid turn-around to come home, nevermind the accompanying lack of sleep! this was surprisingly one of the most restorative weekends I’ve had in a while. Maybe it had something to do with it being a four day weekend. Or maybe it had more to do with seeing family. Maybe it was about who wasn’t going to be in the office when I came in this morning. But I actually felt rested when I went back to work today.
Sometimes I feel like the only cab on the road. But not in LA. Never in LA.
I went to bed at about 10:30 Thursday night. I set my alarm for 2 AM, but I woke up at 1 and knew I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. So I got up, showered, dressed, made a pizza, and departed for points south. At this point, I had ½ tank of gas and $20. My monthly paycheck hadn’t hit my account. So I had to take it on faith that it would before I really needed to fuel up.
I stopped for gas in Bakersfield. It was either going to be the $20 or…. I checked my account and my paycheck had hit! Yay! So I filled up and continued on.
I was actually making really good time despite the thick fog. I’ve had lots of practice driving in the fog. You do have to be more careful, but it’s quite doable. There were only three points at which I needed to slow down, but they passed quickly. When I hit the Grapevine, all fog disappeared. I was feeling very good about my ETA.
Then I hit LA traffic. Good God! I hate LA traffic! But at least I was still moving. Until I hit OC traffic! It was even worse!! It didn’t help that I was a little tired, and uncomfortable (I really had to take a bathroom break), but traffic was so thick that I couldn’t readily move over to exit in the right places and I ended up taking a couple of detours. Grr. So I was getting more and more physically uncomfortable. It was looking more and more like I wasn’t going to arrive in time. And I couldn’t see a place to stop and use a restroom. Finally, I took a chance and exited so that I could look for a stop. I found one but their bathroom was out of order! I am not too proud to say that at that point, I resorted to improvising.
Feeling much better, I contined to follow my iphone’s map to the church. Indeed I arrived at the appointed destination with 5 minutes to spare!! Only to realize that my phone had sent me to the wrong church. *Sigh* I reprogrammed the map ap, and quickly made my way to the correct location. I ended up being only about 10 minutes late. But it was only the rosary, so no biggie.
To be continued….
