My photo
No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

My church family

Saturday at church, for Andy's funeral, I was quite impressed with the morticians who were handling the care and such for the family. Afterward, when everyone else had moved into the Fellowship Hall, I spoke to the man who seemed to be in charge and thanked him for taking such good care of "my family". The lady with him and he thanked me for the compliment and reminded me it was their job, but it seemed like so much more than only a job to them. 

Later on, when talking with Fran and her son, Dennis, about the art work, I mentioned to them how wonderful the funeral director seemed to be. They were impressed with the care they provided, and told them what I said to the guy. 

Monday the available members joined the family at the National Cemetery for the committal service. What a nice crowd there was! We gathered first at welcome center where we could visit until the caravan left for the site. I had a chance to  chat some more with Dennis and his wife. He was wondering how the service was going to be, as he was already weeping a bit. I told him it would be extremely significant as well as emotional, and important for us all. Then, he hugged me and said, "Thank you for calling us your family...." Of course, I meant it, but it was nice to have that acknowledgement.

Six men served again as pall bearers, and the funeral director presented them all with a boutonniere. Very nice touch, I thought. Brad came and stepped in as pall bearer in Frank's place. Frank was able to attend, as he works next door at the prison as an electrician, but was in work clothes. 

The military Honor Guard were already in place, immediately playing Taps and doing the flag folding ceremony. Mikey was quite moved starting with the taps, taking the whole thing quite hard. Saturday he had held up nicely but the committal was harder. Might have been the playing of Taps, the flag folding, or Kristi singing "America, the Beautiful" which put him away. And me, as well!
                     
It was a glorious day weather-wise. I had ridden out with Judy and Michael C., at their invitation. Love that! I stood with Terri, who was also extremely moved since her dad's committal service was held here as well. The tears were flowing all around, hearing others sniffling or seeing them blow their noses. It might have been in sympathy for Mikey, too, since he was struggling so with the passing of his grandpa.

Pastor had a couple readings and then we were dismissed. The hostess for the cemetery urged us to move along as another committal was coming right behind ours, but we did linger a bit, saying good-bye to the family as they headed back to their homes. Andy's cousin hugged me and said, "You just make it all so nice, with that smile of yours..." He was a sweetheart. His wife had taken our picture earlier at the Center. 

As I said good-bye to Dennis and his family, he hugged me and thanked me for being so welcoming to them when they come down to visit. As we parted he said, "Take care of her..." and I promised I would take good care of Fran. I love my family!
                      
Judy, Michael, and I joined Terri in visiting her dad's grave-site. We had to walk a distance as the road was busy with trucks taking care of another burial. Pastor joined us for this. Terri had a bouquet of artificial flowers to place at his marker and I had a small flag along in my purse. I stuck it in the vase with the flowers and Terri took a picture of it. 

How remarkable this place has grown in the two years since Gordy's committal. I said we should have asked Kristi to come with us to sing something there and Pastor said, "You could sing something, you're a soprano...". I said, "No, I don't think I could do it." Terri said I could sing something cheerful and we all decided that even Happy Birthday would put me away that day! 

Up from my nap

Yawn and stretch! Took a bit of a nap, the real kind of nap with eyes closed and probably my mouth hanging open. I was dog-tired! For a number of reasons, my sleep last night was disturbed and I hate it!

First of all, Monday morning I noticed that when I exhaled, I could hear and perhaps feel a wheeze. No congestion or other cold type symptoms, but a whistling/wheezing sound which seemed to worsen as the day went on. Where did that come from? Well, I did get quite excited watching the Jaguar game (the 2nd half) in the cabana Sunday and some screaming ensued. Did that do it?

In an attempt to be rid of the whistle sound, I would make myself cough, hoping to break loose whatever was caught. Later in the afternoon, I went to Publix at Loch Rane and asked the pharmacist what to take for it. She suggested Mucinex or Robitussin, which comes in liquid form. I knew Justin has Mucinex on hand so bought a nice bottle of the Robit. stuff. When I got home, I realized it was the kid's formula. Ugh! Time for me to go the HOME!

I took a swig of the liquid stuff and was resting when Justin came home. The whistle was still there so Justin gave me two of his tablets, of which I took one. I don't know when it stopped, but the noise did stop and thus far today---I am whistleless!

And so is my toilet! When I got home yesterday, I was cleaning my bathroom sink, having sprayed it with Lime Away before leaving in the a.m. As I rinsed the cloth, the water slowed to a dribble and then stopped. Now what? 

Connie was called and knew nothing about it so was getting busy making calls, and I got on the computer. You can count on me! Once logged in, I read my e-mails and sure enough, there was a note from Kerrie at The Club, announcing a broken water main. The water was shut off to the entire property. I let Connie know of this development and waited for it to come back on. Later Connie asked me to send a memo to our Owners letting them know it might be off until 5 or 6 pm. Wow! Good thing I have four potties!

When the water came on around 4:30 pm, I started the washer again to finish my load before Justin got home. The washer spit and sputtered as always happens when water has been shut off. I ran water in the sink to finish the cleaning job, and then flushed my toilet. It began to fill and then made a clunking sound, jiggling the ceramic top. My heart went to my throat!
                                        
I flushed it again, after removing the top of the toilet, and I could hear a whistling sound. (What is this with the whistling today???????) I jiggled the handle, lifted the float, and monkeyed carefully with the equipment, but it persisted. Now what? I put the cover back on and tried to NOT hear it. You know how that worked, I bet!

All night long I was listening, twice throwing off my blankets thinking I could hear water. It was not running, no water was moving in the bowl, but I was vigilant anyway. 

This morning I was messaging with Linda before she left for work, telling her about the toilet whistling. I had already told her  my chest whistling had gone away. At the same time we both wrote that I should put a Mucinex in the toilet tank!!!! 

My downstairs neighbor, Jeff, came up a few minutes ago, could hear the whistling/hissing sound, bent around on the rod supporting the float, and the sound stopped. 
                                                Replacement ref furor grows after wild Seattle win
Yay for Jeff!!! It's in his best interest to have my plumbing in good working order, as we just passed the two year anniversary of The Great Flood. He is my hero, and tonight I will welcome sleep. Not only was sleep bothered by water concerns but I think the medicine might have helped with my restlessness. Add to that the NFL refs blowing the call on the last play of the Packer game and I was shot for the night!!!