May. 27, 2002 - 22:56 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Day Well Spent

Our family as well as paying respects to fallen service men and women, uses Memorial Day to go to the cemetery where most of our deceased family lives and put fresh flower arrangements by Heather (she is a florist) at the graves.

So it was up very early to get dressed and load the flowers in the cars and head out. We met the rest of the family at the cemetery. It was a cool, sunny morning with puffy clouds above, green grass all around of course. There were some small family members with us too, and they were given family history lessons at each site and their questions answered. It was an enjoyable event, doubly so because our daughter from Eugene, Oregon and her family were visiting here and went along with us.

After a leisurely placing of flowers, taking photos and gab we loaded into our cars and the caravan headed to a nice restaurant on that side of town, took over one of the long tables and had breakfast. Looking down the table it appeared to me that no two people ordered the same thing. I was at the noisy end and was able to hear most every thing said up there.

I think we overstayed there as coffee was interspersed with chat. But it was good. Afterward most of the family split for other places strange and exotic, or is it esoteric ? There was a stamp and coin shop across the street from the restaurant and we stopped in there so my granddaughter could see what she could get for part of the stamps I gave her. She finally decided not to sell anything and I think she has enough to start a stamp business when she gets a bit older. C'est la guerre.

Heather dropped this tired guy at home and went to take her brother to Fort Logan cemetery to visit his wife's grave. I stayed home trying to catch up on back e-mails and make sense of other stuff.

Heather got back home and a big conference took place, after much dickering it was decided that a nap was not only in order but was a necessity. Rising a bit late we had a somewhat dinner from leftover stuff, the roast chicken was better than it was yesterday and the salad was still crisp and tasty. What with the little odds and ends plus ice cream we had a satisfying meal.

It was about dark then and we had settled in to do our late evening thing, Heather watching TV and me doing my Webtv tango. Not too long after I settled in, my oxygen concentrator began beeping, indicating trouble. I did all the usual, made sure it was plugged in all the way, that no kinks were in the hose, turned it off and let it set then restarted, pushed the reset button, nothing helped it would have been soon dead in the water. I was about half down one bottle and had one full one left. Not enough to make it through the night. Regular delivery due the fourth of June.

As luck would have it the after hours holiday system was in force and I played menu roulette on the telephone for quite a long time before I finally got a live voice who would pass a message on. Quite some time passed while I sat by the phone and someone phoned me. After answering the routine questions and, "did you try this, that and the other ?" and telling them that I had, several times already, he told me that he was the dispatcher and would have the truck driver call me and let me know when he would be here.

Fun way to spend an evening it was. Heather had to go out on an errand or two so I did sentry duty at the phone. Truck driver called and told me he would be here in two hours. I had just hooked up my last bottle two and a half hours later when he called and said it would be another half hour. He arrived with the new concentrator, I managed to talk him out of four bottles of oxygen to tide me over 'til the regular delivery.

Everything coasted down to the normal helter skelter schedule and here a I sat at the keyboard with an empty skull -- echoing yet. The witching hour approaches and the entry must be made - editing will be done after the fact. But thinking it over, it was a Day Well Spent . . . . . .

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