What a week. Fall is coming or maybe even here but I haven’t looked outside yet. Yesterday I had my long awaited colonoscopy and thankfully, all’s good! It’s one of those, “don’t want to do it but better” tests. My buddy who is a hunting guide just lost his sister who kept putting it off and off. It’s a painless test that takes about 15 minutes and finds one of the few cancers that if caught early, can be treated with nearly 100% success. So, (there I go again with the “so”), if you’re 50, go get it done. It’s 100% covered by insurance and you’ll pay zero money out of pocket, plus the propofol they use is really relaxing! That ends today’s public service announcement!
It was a rough week. I’m sure each of us reading could share something about our feelings with all that happened. For us, Lori’s job coupled with her feelings, made for a tough week for her. Working in a hospital around sick people can’t be helpful when you’re trying to get over the loss of a loved one. The boys are ok but Jag says daily how much he misses Grandma and has been giving me a hug every day which is sort of out of character. Â He just asked me if I’m doing ok. He’s overwhelmed a bit as he needs to do about 3 weeks worth of work to catch up at his new school but he told me he should have it all done by Monday, and I bet he will. We had planned on all going to Denver today but he’s staying home to catch up on all his work. Ty had a good 3 days at camp and will go with us which will be good as we can then help him work through any lingering feelings.
I spoke with Pastor Ed at Rockland Community Church and although we’d love to have Christine come for the service, we need to get this done. So (arg, there I go again, Mom’s laughing!), we’ve scheduled the service for Thursday October 5th. I checked with Robi and Shelly and Tasha and a few out of towners like the Rubin’s and that works. Aunt Rose and Scott will be coming too. I had to tell Scott I had another call yesterday when I called him as I couldn’t get off the phone! Other people like Charles, the head salesman at Neiman Marcus for thirty plus years, who was close to Mom, will even be coming. Mom and his Mom, who used to run Saks 5th Avenue knew each other for years and Charles and I exchanged our Moms phone numbers two months ago so they could call each other. He told me his Mom will be crushed as they just had a 2 hour phone call about 6 weeks ago. So (arg) there you go.
Tomorrow I’m going to go pick up Shelly at take her out to the house. We’re not sure what to do with all the furniture as no one has room for it and we don’t want to throw it away so we’ll have to figure something out. Then there’s the clothes, lots and lots of clothes. Lori is about the only one who can fit in Mom’s clothes but what I’m talking about is the decades of stuff from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and so on that no one will wear. If you wanted to play dress up for a costume party, there’s some good stuff. Maybe we can find a consignment shop to take things to. Actually she had enough clothes so we could start our own consignment shop, ha! Anyhow lots of stuff to get through. Lori reminded me that we have a ton of our own stuff in storage at Mom’s from when we moved! I’m already paying for two storage units to the tune of $440 a month and don’t really want to get another one. There’s a few pieces Robi wants like a couch and the butcher block in the kitchen but there’s a house full of other stuff. Tasha is now reading the blog daily and we talked yesterday and would love to get some stuff down to her but by the time you pay to ship it, you could just buy something in Georgia. Oh well, we’ll work through it. Personally all I care about is things like photos and a few keepsakes that have memories associated with them. Mom saw things coming as she gave a few things away like her wedding ring to Robi before she passed and us boys a few memento’s like her dads stop watch to me and a couple paintings to Tommy. She even gave some small memento’s to her friends who were less fortunate. Who knows what we’ll find in the attic or basement. Unless you actually see it, you can’t fathom the shear amount of “stuff” that is there as she was a pack rat. Mom never really cleaned out much from when Dad passed as his medicine cabinet in their bathroom is just the way he left it! Dad must have had a dozen manicure sets which makes sense as he was always grooming his finger nails, but a dozen sets? Almost OCD, ha. We do have to look in every single pocket of every single piece of clothing in every closet as Mom would stick notes and the occasional $20 or $50 bill in a pocket.
I have James coming out today to give me a proposal on keeping the yard up and doing some small things around the house. Mom was really good to him and she actually prepaid him for some work as he needed some money so he has some things he’s doing for us. Speaking of James, say what you will about him, but he was really good to Mom and Dad. It’s been 17 years since I called him over from the neighbors and introduced myself and then had Mom come outside to meet him and hire him for Dad. He wasn’t “medical” meaning he didn’t have a degree or anything but he 
cared and was available 24/7 with a phone call. He too is grieving and sort of lost as he now has no income. He told me Mom was the first person he saw every morning and the last person he say every night for the past 7 years, which is pretty much true. So (arg) we’ll use him around the house and I’m sure he’ll find something. Maybel, oh Maybel, Mom’s yappy little dog, now lives with Tom and Ali. That’d make Mom happy and it makes us happy too as no freakin way we’d take her!
Guess that’s it for the day, it’ll be a week tomorrow and I’m already dreading the day, not that it means much other than being a week. Just one of those things that pops into your head. Here’s a photo of all the girls around August 4th. Take care, be safe, hug your family and God Bless.