monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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Did it rain at the funeral in Family Plot?
Well we're back and glad to be home. We got home last night about 5, and we were all tired, so I went to bed and slept until it was time to go to work. It was so hot and humid in the house I was glad to go to my nice cool office!
The weekend went well, but it rained the whole time we were there. Harold (my father-in-law) was hoping to take the girls to the driving range, but it rained all day on Saturday so they never made it. He ordered some left-handed clubs for Rachel online Saturday afternoon, which should be delivered this week!
We drove up there on Friday, with the big harp and the big dog both in the back. The dog travels well for short distances but we had never taken her on a long trip, so to be on the safe side, I dosed her with Benadryl so she could sleep. RA's vet told her it was okay to use it for her dog, and her daughter works in a vet's office, so she told us the correct dosage. We thought it would make the dog sleep the whole way, but it didn't. She kept getting up and looking out the windows, or just watching us. She looked glazed and glassy-eyed, though, and was very thirsty - every time we stopped, we took the dog out for a walk and poured a bottle of water into her bowl and she drank all of it!
We had a little stressful event for a while when Kim was driving (she has her permit now) and we realized that we had never filled the gas tank before we left home like we usually do, so Rich had her get off at the next exit because the tank was so low and he wanted to find a gas station. We were driving around in Chicago, in an industrial area, where there were lots of little shops and factories, but no gas stations! Also, the traffic was very heavy and Kim was driving, so we were all a bit nervous. She did a fine job but I was so nervous I thought I would lose my mind. I used my cell phone to send a text message to Sarah that said, "OMG we r in Chicago traffic Kim is driving we r all going 2 die!"
Finally I told Kim to pull over and let Rich take the wheel, because he is able to negotiate the traffic and look for a gas station at the same time, and we finally found one. Gas was 2.45 a gallon! It was 55 dollars to fill our tank, but then we weren�t worried so the pressure was off and we got back on the highway and drove on to Michigan.
We stayed at Rich�s parent�s house - you know, the House of Hotness. I woke up at 3 in the morning dripping sweat! I couldn't go back to sleep in our room, so I went out to the living room where Rachel was sleeping. It was a lot cooler there with the ceiling fan on, so I lay down on the sleeper sofa with her and slept a little more. When I woke up again it was about 6 in the morning, and I told her we should get dressed and go buy the new Harry Potter book. We started gettng dressed, and Rich's parents woke up, too, and his dad couldn't understand why we wanted to go out NOW to buy a book. Finally at 7, he and Rich went out to get some doughnuts and came back with four copies of the book, one for each of the girls, one for me, and one for Rich's mom! Then he took a picture of all of us sitting in the living room, reading! He also bought a golf club for Rachel, a chipper that you can use right or left-handed, so they could go and play later.
We had to be at the cemetary at 9:30, and it looked like rain, so Harold gave us two big golf umbrellas and Rich took his car umbrella, too. We needed all of them, because it was pouring rain by the time we got there. We were a bit early, so we parked by Inger's car, and called her on her cell phone! Roger and Marilyn were in the car with her, and Inger's husband was sitting in another car nearby. He drove over separately so we could do something afterward if we wanted to, and he could go home.
So Dennis was there, with his son Dan, who is living in Michigan with Ed now. Ed and his girlfriend Sue were there, and so were Ed's two daughters, Leslie and Tracie. My dad's sister Diane was there, Sarah and her boyfriend Chris, Inger and her husband Bob, and her daughters, Kate and Jeanette. Rich and I and Rachel and Kim, of course. Both of Inger's sons are in Utah this summer, and so is Scott, so they weren't there. Oh, and Roger and Marilyn. Roger said a prayer, and they buried the box of ashes, tamped down the dirt and replaced the sod over the hole. Then we got out of there, because we were sick of getting rained on. I meant to get a picture but I forgot, and anyway, it was raining! So just picture any movie you have ever seen in which someone is being buried during a downpour, and that was us. Some people were talking about going out to breakfast, but we had already eaten, and had plans for lunch, so we went back to the house.
Harold had hoped to take the girls to the driving range, but it kept raining, so we just sat and read our Harry Potter books until lunchtime. He took us to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch, which is Kim's favorite place to eat! She loves seafood! While we were there, I got a phone call from Sarah, who said they were at Jeanette's place and they wanted to come over and hang out with us. We told them to meet us back at Harold's so we could play cards!
So when we got back to the house, having decided it was too miserable outside to golf, Harold showed us the putting practice spot in his basement - he's got one of those cups that you putt into and it spits the ball back out at you. The girls and Rich played with that a little, and Harold showed them his other spot in the basement where he practices his swing with a club that he modified so the handle is short and doesn't hit the ceiling when he swings. Then we went upstairs and he turned on the golf channel and watched some game in Scotland.
Inger, Kate, Jeanette, Sarah and Chris came over and brought pop and chips and the guys all sat in the living room to watch golf, while Bertha and Inger read their HP books and we played cards. Kim was on the computer, and then she went to read, and Kate dropped out after a while to go read her book, too, so Sarah, Jeanette, Rachel and I played cards until Rachel got tired from being woken up at 3 and 6, but by then it was time to get dressed and go out.
Everybody in the family was supposed to meet at a restaurant in Willis for dinner before the memorial, but we had all stuffed ourselves at Joe's Crab Shack, so we weren't very hungry. It was fun, though, with everyone there, including Aunt Diane and Roger and Marilyn, and Diane's son, our cousin Mitch, with his wife, Sue. I took some pictures but my batteries were low, so I didn't get as many as I wanted. Good thing Sarah had her camera, too!
After dinner we drove through Willis before we went to the church, just to show the kids where we used to live, and we passed Dennis on the road by our old house, doing the same thing with his son, Dan! We pulled up next to him and laughed about how small everything looked! It used to seem like miles to walk to the post office or to the little store, but apparently it was all just a couple of short blocks away!
There was a nice turnout at the church. Ed and his daughters had made a very nice photo display, and put out Mom and Dad's wedding album, too. Some of our friends in the ward there had made cookies and sandwiches and brought pop (too bad we still weren't hungry!) and we had taken Kim's big harp, so she played that while people mingled and talked. It was fun to see people from the ward that had been friends with our parents, and there were a lot of Dad's flying friends there. Some of our old neighbors came, and also Ed had invited people from the restaurants where Dad used to eat all the time and especially the Coney Island on Rawsonville Rd. The cooks came over from there, and also another man who was a regular there and knew Dad. I thought that was funny and nice.
We were there two hours and we were really tired when it was all over! I want to write notes to thank the people in the ward who did all that work, cooking and setting up and cleaning up afterward, and the next time there is a funeral for someone in our ward that no one knows because they haven't been to church in years, I'm going to make cookies and be there to help clean up afterward, because I really appreciate what they all did for us!
R&M brought a picture for me that Lynn painted of Grandma as a little girl and I love it! I hung it up over the desk in this room so I can look at it all the time. I gave them a set of Glenn Miller records to take to Grandma. Rachel found them at a garage sale and insisted that we buy them for her. I hope they enjoy them. She and Dwight and Shirley eat breakfast together and listen to old Big Band records every morning, which is my idea of breakfast in Hell, but they find it pleasant.
We left yesterday in the morning - we would have gone to church, but the Ypsilanti ward doesn't start until 1 in the afternoon, and we would have gotten home too late. We couldn't find the dog's Benadryl, and I didn't think she needed it anyway. She was fine on the way home and actually slept better than she did on the way up. Harold had packed a cooler full of food and drinks, so we had plenty to eat in the car and we made good time on the way home.
We were listening to an audio book in the car because Kim and I can't read in a moving car, but Rachel can, so she read HP all the way home, and finished it after we got here. I finished it at work last night, and Kim is still working on it. She heard us talking about parts of it and now she's not that eager to finish it because one of the characters that we love, dies. Rachel cried over it for a while!
So it was a busy weekend, and a bit sad, but it was so nice to see Dennis and everyone, and talk to people we hadn't seen in a long time. Kind of like a family reunion, only a bit sadder.
4:12 p.m. - 2005-07-18
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