Return of the Mack +1

Yesterday I visited dad at lunch time. Spent some time with him and my brother. Then I returned home and did some yard work. Planted a bunch of flowers and small trees in the front yard. At first it was just raining outside. Then the rain turned to snow. I was very cold by the time I finished.

Today I returned to work. It felt good to work on some tricky problems. Almost getting back into the normal swing of things. Although nothing is truly normal any more with mom having passed away. I did some chores at lunch.

This afternoon I finally got back to exercising down in the basement. Did the regular routine of walking on the treadmill and cycling on the bike. Life does indeed go on.

Back to Life

I took the day off from work today. Needed a day to decompress. Momoko was off from school for grading. We visited a Japanese hibachi restaurant for lunch that was new to me. Little Kat stayed home and slept in. Later he got busy on his chores so he could be ready for a friend to sleep over.

Kit Kat ordered us some dinner. I was supposed to get breadsticks for dinner. Kit Kat forgot my order. Momoko shared her pizza and dessert sticks with me. Momoko, Kit Kat, and I watched American Hustle on DVD. I love anything with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in it. Too bad they were supporting cast in this one.

Tomorrow my brother comes over my house to watch movies. That's what we usually do on Saturdays. We will also do some shopping for him. He has decided it is time to get the Internet in his house. About time.

Going Home

This morning my brother and I woke up early to take my aunt to the airport to return home. We planned for about a two hour drive to the airport. Traffic is evil in the morning. We got lucky near the airport and got there a little over an hour from leaving home.

We got to the ariport so early that the checkin desk for my aunt's airlines was not even open yet. So we had a seat and waited. I was impressed when the airline staff came and bowed to the customer waiting in line early.

My aunt spoke to an airline representative, and she got a map and instructions to get to her plane. My brother and I left and returned to my mom's house. Then I went home for a quick nap before heading over to my college for my exam.

The Burial

We planned to meet my cousin at my dad's house before mom's burial. He got into town early, but went to eat some pancakes with his kids. My cousin came to the house with enough time to spare. But as we were about to leave for the cemetary, he told me he and his kids needed to change clothes.

So we arrived at the cemetary 10 minutes late. That seemed okay because we had planned to show up 30 minutes early. We lined up behind the hearse. Then the hearse took off too early. We had no choice but to follow. I told the cemetary guy that it was too early, and other people might be arriving.

It was terribly windy. We waited in the cars as some guys staked down the tent with reinforcements. Some flowers went blowing in the wind. Good thing we had 6 pall bearers. It was tricky to move the casket over the grave site. Our priest stayed calm as the cold and winds rocked us.

The cemetary guy arranged for one final opening of the casket for my aunt to see her sister, and my dad to verify it was my mom in the casket. Most of us stayed to see the casket lowered into the ground. A kind woman from my brother's work consoled my aunt.

The Viewing

I went over my dad's house early this morning. Got a bite to eat at McDonald's. Did not want to eat too much. But I knew we had a busy afternoon. I drove my aunt to the funeral home. My brother and dad followed in my brother's car. Snow was coming down heavy when we arrived.

Turns out my brother had chosen the right casket. It was shiny and light colored, like gold. Dad had placed mom's engagement ring on her sister's hand for safe keeping. We wanted it on mom for her viewing today. An old guy at the funeral home kept bringing in flowers. I had him bring in a magnetic board to mount pictures of mom for display.

Almost all the neighbors from the street where we grew up dropped by. Many had moved out of town when they retired. Some of my coworkers from work showed up early. A lot of my brother's coworkers came by. Kit Kat drove Momoko and Little Kat over. I met one of mom's friends who had known her for 25 years.

Medical Equipment

Yesterday my brother waited by the phone all day. He finally got the call from the company that rented the family medical equipment for mom. Mom did not like staying at the hospital for even one day. She eventually they moved the hospital to mom's house.

Mom had a special bed. And there were machines to help her breathe. Then she needed backup tanks in case the power went out and she needed to breathe. There was no need to keep any of this equipment any more.

The moving guys came in a big rental truck. They broke everything down and carried it out. Afterwards, my brother and I restored the furniture to its original place in the house. My dad was happy that his favorite recliner was available for him to sit in.

Cemetery Duties

My brother and I returned to the cemetary to try to arrange for a plot to bury mom. Mom's sister from Japan wanted to come. But we had to leave her at home. There was going to be a lot of negotiating and paperwork going on.

Our cemetery consultant told us it would take an hour. We knew better. Turned out that it took 3 hours total. Good thing we left dad at home. He can't stay put for any longer than one hour. I decided we should buy two plots. The consultant had troubles with the computer system, but we got the job done.

After the cemetery business was complete, I drove my aunt up to my mom's friend's house. My aunt had gotten to know this friend after mom stopped being able to talk. My aunt would meet mom's close Japanese friends during a Japanese luncheon. I skipped out of it and went home to take care of chores.

Retrieving our Aunt

Our aunt was scheduled to fly in from Japan today. My car was in the shop. So my brother drove us to the airport. It was not the airport I was familiar with. This was the international airport. Luckily I brought my GPS with me into my brother's car.

We did pretty good driving to the airport until we needed to turn onto the airport road. My brother almost missed the turn. At the airport, we tried to survey where our aunt would come out and get her luggage. Unfortunately, her luggage came out behind closed doors so customs could keep an eye on it.

On the way back to my dad's house, we hit some bad traffic. At home we had some communication problems. Our aunt does not really speak English. None of us speak Japanese. We had to phone a friend who could translate for us. It was weird watching my aunt speak Japanese. It reminded me a lot of my mom.

Duped

Mom had asked to be buried in a cemetery close to my house. It is close to my brother's work. It is also close to my mom's closest friends' house. Dad was supposed to go get some plots in the cemetary. Just never got around to doing it.

Our funeral home consultant told us he did not know the exact pricing for the cemetary. But he gave us an estimate of less then $1500. Today we went to the cemetary. I chose some plot for the family in the middle of the cemetary. The bill came out to $15,000. What the heck?

Turns out I chose the premium lots. We could save $4000 by choosing the least expensive lots. Still this seemed like too much money. Our funeral home consultant agreed. He steered us to a more reasonable cemetary. They gave me a quote of about half as much as the best price from the cemetary my mom chose.

The problem was that my dad thought this other cemetary was too far away. Thus we are stuck. And we need to get mom buried. My brother and dad want us to just pay the exhorbitant fees. That is not how I like to do business. I figure we will need to work something out with these vultures.

The Passing of Mom

When I woke up this morning, I had a couple calls from my brother. My mom had passed away in the morning. I got in the car and hurried over. My brother wanted me to see mom before the people from the funeral home took her away.

I drove my father and brother over to the funeral home after they came and got her body. There were a lot of decisions to be made about her funeral. My dad sat though the beginning of the meeting, but he got too hot and agitated at the lengthy discussions.

My brother and I debated the right casket to bury mom in. Mom knew her time was near. She had already written her own obituary. She wanted to be known for her flower gardening and organic vegetables. Back at home, my brother and I searched through mom's clothes to find something appropriate for us to bury her in.

I actually had to run to college class late in the afternoon. There I made plans to skip the next class. Tomorrow we go to arrange to buy a plot for our family, and solidify the burial plans. Goodbye mom. I know you were the number one reader of my blog.

Grocery Malfunction +1

Today I got to eat lunch at a decent hour. Therefore I decided to go to Roy Rogers, which is usually crowded. I was surprised so many people were already there when I arrived. I had to snag a table from a guy who was leaving. By the time I left, the line to order food was really long.

It was raining outside. I figured it would be a good time to go grocery shopping. Who wants to shop in the rain, right? Turns out a lot of other people must have thought the same thing. Lines were long. They opened up a new line as I was checking out. Got lucky.

The final bag I was handed was full of cans. I put that bag in the child seat portion of the shopping cart. As I raced outside, cans started falling out of the cart. Oh no. I almost missed one of the cans that rolled down the sidewalk. Another customer grabbed it for me. Whew.

One is Silver, the Other Gold +1

I had been trying to catch up with a friend from my last job. Thought I could see him earlier this year. But I spend a lot of time studying for school. Then my job has been extra busy for a month or more. Finally I had a week of training where I was free for lunch during the day. I met my friend at an old upscale mall. The mall is about to be demolished. So it felt like a ghost town.

I had been wondering bout another friend I went to school with at my previous college. Had not heard from her in a while. That was strange. I reached out and found that she said there was really no news for her to report. She moved since last I saw her. So during training week, I picked her up from her new place and went to lunch. Enjoyed the all you can eat soup at Pizzaria Uno's.

My college friend is waitig to get some paperwork sorted before proceeding to her next college. So I propsed that we work on a project together this summer. I am busy with my school until summer. We plan to make a program to query a database full of fan fiction information. Oh yeah.

Here is how a song about friends goes: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold." True that.

Papers Please

The family finally got around to getting our passport photos taken this weekend. We ended up going to CVS. An employee brought us over to the frozen foods section. That seemed weird. Then she pulled down a white background in front of a refridgerated door.

One by one, we got out photos taken with what looked like a small digital camera. Hey. We could have done that. But what we were really paying for was the development of the film, plus a picture size that meets passport requirements.

Little Kat took a picture with his glasses on. His picture was the only one that did not turn out correct during the first take. His second time around was better. Momoko had printed us all out coupons for a 20% discount. I handed everyone some cash as the coupon required separate transactions.

This reminds me of a new video game called "Papers, Please". The game was written by a single author. You are an employee working at the border of a former communist nation. You must decide whether to let people into your country or not. It is quite the simulation.

Caulk it up +1

I detected some rotting in the corner of one side of our house. So I patched it up. It did not look good. Needed some paint over top. But first I wanted to address the reason why the wood had rotted. The two pieces of wood above did not line up correctly. It left a gap that water could enter.

Two days ago I sealed up the gap with some caulk. Then I coverd the black shutters and windows with newspaper. Did not want the white paint to get on these items. The next day I brought out a can of white paint and went to work.

It was tough because I had to climb a ladder to do the painting. Then I found the white paint did not quite match the off white color of my house. Oh well. Guess we have white trim. I had to use some duct tape as painter's tape to protect the siding from getting colored.

When the job was done, I was trying to clean up. Got tripped by the hose and took a tumble. Drat. Then I went in the back yard to run the water throught the hose to clean the paint brush. The hose had sprung a leak. Double drat. At least I finally got this job done. Next time I am hiring someone to do the dirty work.

New Additions +1

Momoko, Little Kat, and I went to lunch together today. Kit Kat was supposed to eat lunch with her boyfriend. However she did not due to a mix up. We all arrived home at the same time. Momoko decided we should bite the bullet and go purchse some gerbils today.

Kit Kat drove us to the far away pet store that had multiple gerbils. It was crowded. Kit Kat had to ask twice for some assistance. As soon as she saw the employee, she grabbed her before other customers could.

The pet store employee pulled off the little gerbil house to uncover four gerbils. One was black. Another was grey. And two were brown. We had planned to purchase three gerbils. But we ended up taking all four so as not to split up the litter.

Back at home, Kit Kat prepared a small cage for the new gerbils. She put kay cob down on the bottom of the cage. She put soft fluffy material on top of the cob. A wooden house was put in one corner. A gerbil wheel was put in the other. Hay, mixed food, Cheerios, and carboard were all added. The gerbils were elated with the setup.

Time for Training +1

I had recently scheduled to spend next week in training. Usually employees go receive formal training from some company. I decided to do a self paced training. This week is the annual "build a gane in a week" contest. And I intended to participate.

My goal this week was to ensure nothing got in the way of my training. My company has the tendency to cancel vacation and training plans frequently. I made sure the problematic program under my care was finally fixed this week. I also helped a couple other guys fix their program.

Today I was super vigilant to make sure training stayed on schedule. Spoke with my team lead to confirm my work was wrapped up. Was proactive in helping another team do their work. Finished up some work that got behind because of work emergencies. Now I am free to go study during my training week.

Working Late

For the last two nights, I had to work late into the night. I am talking about working through midnight into the next day. Had to monitor a customer job that only runs at night. Luckily it seems to be working with my latest fixes applied.

Today I decided to take the morning off. Seemed fair. I got a lot of late night extra hours in. I alerted my bosses by email, and slept in. Now I am going to take a nice lunch out. Been busy at work lately. Hard to go out to lunch any more. I hope this trend does not continue.

In other news, Kit Kat bought some tickets to fly out to see her dad during spring break. She opted for the pricier tickets that land her at the airport closest to her dad. Momoko, Little Kat, and I are trying to make a decision on a couple vacation ideas for ourselves during spring break.

Meticuous +1

Today is Sunday. That's when I do my outdoor work. It is chilly out. I put on a hooded beach jacket I bought around 20 years ago. The thing is tight around my spare tire of a waist. But it will be easy to wash if I get it dirty.

I grab my grabbers. They are a two foot long tool with a handle I can squeeze to cause two tongs at the other end to "grab" sticks that are on the ground. This saves me from bending over and straining my back. There are a lot of sticks on the ground in the back yard.

Today I am just collecting the new sticks. Last week I collected a wheel barrel overflowing with such sticks. I also collected two thick branches last week. After collecting the stick, I go to work sawing the branches into small logs. Got to get things these ready to fit into a bag.

I line a 30 gallaon trash bag with old newspaper. I put dried leaves I collected into the bottom of the bag. Then I break up smaller sticks and stuff them in the bag. I also add the mini-logs, making sure the bag does not get too heavy. I tie the bag when it is full. I wrap it in a second bag with more newspaper.

One bag done, at least two more to do.