Thursday, April 14, 2011

This and That

Despite traveling to a funeral last week, J and I had several funny moments, some many most of which were at my expense.  Often when I get tired, my fibro can make it difficult to grab the word I want - sometimes I know the first letter and a few seconds wait gets the right word, but other times I think everything's going smoothly and the wrong word pops out.

Like while we were waiting in the car at the cemetery for the escort vehicle and I asked J if he wanted a 'bucket' of water from the cooler. He and Shoeshine thought that was pretty good, but really liked it when I asked him where (in the cemetery) his mother was 'parked'.

Later that night, we were recapping the day for my parents and described the nice wooden chest that the cremated remains were put in at the church for the service. J and his youngest brother had been asked to carry it up to the altar and did a great job, except that it was a little lopsided. T seemed to be lifting his end up and J had his (bad) arm straight. So I asked him if it was heavy. Without missing a beat, he said "no, he wasn't heavy, he's my brother"!

We talked about the plans for the next day, which included J hanging a screen door, and me cleaning the gutters. J asked if my parents had gloves. Now, he was facing away from my father, who has some hearing loss, which may explain why Pa promptly answered: "We do, but the skunks take care of them". After a quick mental picture of a skunk handing out work gloves, I explained it was "gloves, not grubs" that J asked about.

And speaking of gutters and doors, we enjoyed helping them out with that, as well a few other chores. My three sisters who live in R.I. do a great job of dealing with any house, car or medical issues that arise, so we are always happy when we can share some of that when we are visiting.

On our way home, we stopped at Ms. M and Mr C's house to drop off Shoeshine for his ride to the airport later that day. They had several questions about home and garden issues, so we answered the ones we could, and plan to go down in a few weeks to help with some repairs.

Then the plan changed and we packed up Shoeshine and took him a couple of exits further up 495 to Sectaur's house, and he drove him to a bus station later.We got to visit a bit and I borrowed a book from him so that worked out very well.

The book is Steven Erikson's The Crippled God, which is the final book of a very good, but long and complicated series. I have just started it and am trying to remember just where everyone fits in.  Oh, and I recently read this book:

It looked so pretty and was such a hefty book, that I was afraid it wouldn't live up to its cover- but it did. I must say that a little way into it, I was afraid it was turning into a vampire romance (of which I am not a fan) but it turned out to be okay. Not your standard vampire or witch book- a nice solid read. However- Spoiler Alert-

It seems to be the first in a series- poo! I still recommend it, especially to anyone who likes Diana Gabaldon.

I think that's about it for the mish-mash in my head today.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Funny! I love the image of a skunk handing out work gloves! That is so cute!

I am going to look for that book, it looks interesting! I am always excited to find new books to read! Thank you!

Anonymous said...

LOL Glad to supply material for your periodic essays!

Wendy said...

Hilarious! I love that your family can laugh at a funeral--you guys are my kind of people. And the next time I`m in a cemetary, I`m TOTALLY using that `parked` line!