Prolific Procrastination...

When it rains it pours as the old saying goes. An old friend of mine's father died the other day and I wanted to send her a great big condolences card. Well, my absentminded father took the card home with him last night after giving me the card and urging me to write it.

As Homer Simpson would Say, Dope!

Hopefully, I can get that card today and get it in the mail. My mother, the secretary, would have had it in the mail last week -- almost precognizant that J.L. had died.

This isn't the first time this has happened. It has happened several times. My father will bring my Cokes in the evenings and then forget and try to take them home again. It seems my father and I have the attention span of gnats.

Edit: This is getting complicated. The card was in a Kroger bag in the back of my card after buying groceries Monday night. Dad and I always drove my mother crazy with this kind of shit.

Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust...

It was a quiet ride back up the interstate to the Chattahoochee Valley. My father and I had just been to a somber funeral where many tears were shed. It can really tug on your heartstrings to see so many friends in anguish. "Hugs for everybody!"

Part of the drive was showing my father things about his car he din't know. Hell, dad didn't even know how to open his glove box.

"These two buttons control the heated seats," I told him.

We turned them on and soon our rumpuses were toasty warm. Dad also has a panoramic sunroof and it thrilled me to open it up. I was greeted by blue skies and wispy white clouds.

"What do you think death is?" my father asked ponderously as he drove.

"It is final and it is the finish line," told him. "You live forever by the propagation of your genes."

I then chuckled to my father and told him I was a genetic dead end. I don't think any woman would want to sire progeny with me if she was in her right mind.

When we arrived back at my house, we took my many medications and performed Maggie's cherished ritual. She was sitting in the den window waiting on us.

"Shit! I am tired," dad said. "I am leaving here, putting on my pajamas, and watching some TV."

Quiet Time! The Eulogies Have Been Said...

Andrew's Honda

"I am really glad you came over," my father excitably told me as he hugged me tightly. No man hugs today. "The phone is ringing off the hook and I am laying low and not answering my calls."

It does feel like the calm after a turbulent storm. It was so quiet in my father's house. It was bedlam for the past few days causing all of us much consternation and secret strife.

Dad has more food than he knows what to do with. He walked downstairs to get a poppy seed chicken casserole in the basement fridge that he knew I would love. I also got another breakfast casserole.

"Mrs. Reeves cooked that and she is wonderful in the kitchen."

"I am giving you your mother's car and we are going to give Mrs. Sandra (mom's best friend) your Honda," my father then said stunning me and surprising me.

Mom's car only has 28,000 miles on the odometer and is practically brand new as she drove like a little old lady. I am sure going to miss my CR-V, though. I have mixed feelings about all of this.

Finis, Goodbyes, and Farewells...

http://www.wisegeek.com/

Mr. Bradshaw, the minister at the funeral service today, quoted my somewhat interesting words regarding my mother and heaven. Dad loves to hear me say it as well. He says I have an insight to my mother's actions and thoughts that they are clueless about.

"John's eldest son said god has a new secretary today and there are appointments to be made in heaven."

I can imagine my mother looking at her celestial and heavenly calendar making appointments. I told dad we are going to have to pencil in his heartworm medications as well. LOL! Mom was always so stalwart and fastidious about Maggie getting her medications.

Groceries? There is absolutely nothing to eat in this house. I am hoping Charlie will call me and then we will head to Kroger. I am not brave enough  just to go get them and use my debit card. Dad doesn't need any more hassles or worries today as well. 

Funeral @ 3 PM Eastern Time Tomorrow...

Danger Will Robinson! Danger!

Visitation was almost more than I can bear and I was more of a wallflower than anything occasionally shaking hands. Charlie said so as well - socially overbearing to the extreme. I have never seen so many people gather at one place except for an Auburn football game in Auburn's Jordan-Hare stadium.

I arrived home and put my jacket on my coat rack and sat silently and quietly for a moment of introspection as I loosened my tie and sighed. I still can''t believe my mother and my Chief Advocate General is gone.

Soon, Charlie came by to give me my medications around 9 PM. We forwent buying groceries tonight and will do so tomorrow night. Charlie was so exhausted after going and coming all day.  Maybe my father will go with me tomorrow night I hope. I would spend too much if Charlie went with me with Charlie playing a big role in my gluttony.

"I know you're tired Charlie," I told him sincerely as he hugged me and I told him to head on home.

"I will bring you and Maggie some more McDonald's biscuits in the morning before heading in to work," Charlie replied to me.

"I have to go anyway to get Horsefly's morning sausage biscuit,"Charlie then said when I protested him going to such trouble.

I felt he had gone far above his calling and duty during this ordeal.

It Is Just Not Time For the Bed Yet...

On a good note, I slept like a baby last night. I couldn't have come at a more opportune time. Ah Bless...

Maggie saw and heard Charlie pull up to the curb and alerted me promptly last night.

"He's here! He's here! Beta dog!" Maggie seemed to impart to me excitably.

I looked on my computer and the time was 11 PM -- an hour till midnight. The medications do not stop for anything. I then looked out the door's windows to see for myself. After confirming it was Charlie, I walked out in the yard to help Charlie get everything inside. He had brought me a Zaxby's chicken tender plate and some of his wife's, Janice's, potato salad which I so adore. There was also some pickled beets, two lonely biscuits, and green beans cooked Southern style with fatback.

"We're going tomorrow to get you some nicer clothes for the funeral," Charlie told me.

It is not what I wanted to hear, but it needs to be done. I also need some more dressy shoes as well.

Charlie was also keeper of the medications last night.. He made me count each one of my crazy meds before I swallowed them all down with a gulp.

"Do you still feel up to buying your groceries tomorrow?" Charlie asked me. "Give me a call tonight and we will go."

"It wouldn't take me but 15 minutes to do my shopping," I told Charlie to make the prospect a little easier and less taxing sounding.

A Sad and Somber Day...

http://www.cremationresource.org/

I went to a very sad and sudden funeral service today where lots of tears and tissues were in abundance. Dee had lots of admirers and friends I noted. Dad went with me as he had gotten to know Dee very well working in the pharmacy all those years.  She had worked at Kamath Medical for 21 revolutions around the sun. Now I know why everyone was so somber Thursday during my injection visit.

"She went to the emergency room the other night for chest pains and they ran some tests and found out she had advanced stage leukemia," my father told me as we were driving to the funeral service. "She didn't last much longer than that!"

"You've gained some weight," Dr. Kamath said to me with a warm smile. "You look healthier."

Dee got cremated. I told my father I also wanted to get cremated as well. I want my ashes to be poured into our pond out in God's country near Waverly, Al.

And the World and Life Marches Ever Forwards...

My father and Charlie are now out and about getting our Sunday night fried chicken. Mom, the rebellious one, is getting her usual Wendy's hamburger. I just went and emptied all my trash so Charlie wouldn't feel compelled to do so. I am getting my usual which is a 3 piece box of original recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken. Someone pass the hot-sauce and the napkins.

Annabel...

Sorry about yesterday. I am simply bereft of social skills. I had one of my classic panic/anxiety attacks about the whole matter. I just didn't feel able to go through all that needed to be done to for a visit. I just shutdown and went and hid. Know that I care about you very much. It just wasn't in the stars or cards for me.

Unabashedly Right...

You all were right. I was just too stubborn and set in my ways to believe it. Most of Maggie's yeast infection on her chest has cleared up after a week of only eating her dog-food.  It's been a struggle for Maggie and myself. Maggie is being very vocal when she doesn't get her usual breakfast or people food.

Somber Occassions...

My Aunt Pamela from Tupelo, Mississippi is in town for a funeral.  She is my favorite aunt and we have lots in common -- old battle stories to tell when it comes to our process of recovery from certain addictions like smoking and alcohol.  She definitely inherited the addiction gene as well.  She is still as gorgeous as ever these days and definitely doesn't show her age. We went to Milano's Italian grill and bar at my request for lunch.  I got the eggplant parmigiana and it was delicious as ever. Pam got the fettuccine alfredo and had nothing but praise for it as well. We talked a long time -- getting caught up on each other's lives.   .

The funeral was for a friend of the family's named Julia.  She hosted the Catholic lady's luncheon every Monday that my mother attended for years.  My uncle calls her his second mother and was hit especially hard about her death. He stayed with my parent's last night.  She was 90 years old and smoked for nearly 80 of those years.  Dad remarked about how amazing it was last night.

"She definitely bucked the trend," my father said last night.

The cause of death was listed as old age (infirmity?) mom said.

I didn't attend the funeral this afternoon -- my social anxieties getting the best of me.  There would be tons of people there that I haven't seen in years so I didn't put myself through all that.  I know I will regret it tomorrow as I always do.