The Funeral

It was a long day yesterday.

It started at 4:45 a.m. when one of my cats began licking something on the floor. She likes to lick things. I have no idea why. But it woke me up (yes, I'm a light sleeper). I tried to go back to sleep, but she kept licking, and I kept thinking about stuff I needed to do. So at 5:30 I finally got out of bed and got ready for the day.

It turns out that The Kid will probably be accepted to the Upward Bound program, and she's excited about that. I think her body was invaded by aliens this past summer; but, lucky for me, the good ones. She's doing her homework; practicing her flute (to the extent that she figures out the tune for a song and writes it down because she doesn't like the way someone else wrote it); working out in the morning; taking her volleyball seriously; talking about college. I am a lucky dad.

So I had to pull together some paperwork that apparently got missed in her application and run that up to the school. Then I gathered everything up for VC. Note: When you make a list of things you have to do because it's a busy day and you've got a funeral to do, make sure you put "Vestments" on that list. I came this close to forgetting them.

When I got to VC, I put the funeral ordo together, received the body at 11, had lunch with the mortician at noon, did the service at 2, graveside at 3:30, checked mail and had a piece of pie at 4, cleaned up and gone by 4:45, then back to VC for the party at 7.

The funeral went well. The family was very gracious. The service was well attended and I reminded more than one person that we do more than special services at the church and that they are welcome to attend those also.

It was a long day; but it was also a very good day.