Funeral for a Friend

I woke feeling completely rested just before 5:30am. Little wonder, however, given that I went to bed so early the evening prior. I put myself through the usual morning paces of exercise, walking Ykraps, coffee, food, and watering. We were expecting it to be a hot and sunny day with temperatures once again approaching 90 degrees. In fact, their calling for a bit of a heat wave over the weekend with clear skies and temps reaching 95. If I weren’t the on-call dude, we’d definitely be boating.

I left for work around 7:50am dressed slightly nicer than usual. If all went as planned I would be leaving work sometime near 2:30pm to attend my friend, Mark’s funeral. Mindy was planning to meet me there around 3pm.

Work was busy, and like most Friday’s we were struggling to stay on top of everything. Mindy phoned sometime near 10am to let me know that she dropped the boat cover off at Boat Bonnets as planned and that the estimate was $100, or two hours worth of labor. It would be ready early next week. She was headed to her friend, Teri’s after.

Lunch time came quickly. I left about ten minutes earlier than usual. As expected, it was very warm, but I was ready for it and held up nicely. I was back at my desk just after 1:30pm. I ate only the nectarine I packed the day prior leaving my packed lunch in the fridge. And as often happens, I had a flurry of activity hit all at once just before I was scheduled to depart for the funeral. Still, I managed to accomplish what I had to and turned the rest over to peers. I left right at 2:30pm.

Mindy dropped the kids at her friend Tara’s and then met me at the Trueman Rd. Target so that we could ride together. We arrived at Rutherford’s Funeral Home just before 3pm. I recognized a few faces from years past, but most folks were strangers to me. We observed the video tribute then slowly made our way up to see Mark for he last time. I met his father, who has buried both of his sons prior to their 50th birthdays. I felt awful for him.

John Vidosh, my longtime Time Warner buddy, called out to me as we walked away from Mark’s casket. I introduced he and his wife to Mindy and then chatted for the better a part of thirty minutes. Just before 4pm I made my way to see Amy, Mark’s ex-wife, who remained very close to Mark even after their divorce. She, as I understood it, made most of the funeral arrangements. I hadn’t seen Amy in years. She’s a former CompuServer, too. We decided not to stay for the official funeral service which began just after 4pm.

Mindy and I decided to stop at Dick’s Sporting Goods on Sawmill before picking up the kids. It was only a mile or so away. I wanted to look at wakeboards and a few other things. They had a junior wake board for $200. I decided not to buy just yet, however. We were there for a bout 45 minutes. And somewhat uncharacteristically, we left empty handed.

I was getting very hungry having eaten just the nectarine since breakfast. Mindy talked about making wings when we got home but I didn’t feel like doing any cooking. We stopped first to pick-up her van then proceeded to Tara’s to get the kids. Tara wasn’t home but her husband, Doug was. Tara & Bella went to Sam’s Club. We visited for two hours. Tara eventually got back home around 6pm. We left just before 7pm. By then I was really hungry and needed to walk Ykraps. Jacob rode with me, and Bella rode with Mindy.

I walked Ykraps as soon as we arrived home. Mindy ordered a pizza from Minelli’s. She left to pick-up the pie while I got logged into work. We did some serious damage to the extra-large pizza. There were only about six pieces remaining when we finished. Bob I phoned from Barley’s some time just before 8pm to ask if we were gonna be by the firkin tonight. I told that we weren’t, but that we had a sitter for Saturday night so that we could attend Steve’s B-Day celebration.

Mindy, still feeling under the weather, was eager to get to bed. We headed up to bed around 9:30pm where we tuned into Larry King Live while awaiting sleep. I’ll bet I was asleep before 10pm.