Remembering......

7:51 am - PST - Saturday - 49° F, humidity 95% (yup.....raining, raining, raining), wind 8 mph out of ESE.....heavy clouds.....100% chance of rain.....forecast high 53° F.

We were up before 8 am (PST)......I went to type my blog on my Lenovo laptop and realized almost immediately that I had forgotten the power supply when I packed everything up Thursday.....doh!  Fortunately my son keeps a Dell laptop in the kitchen area on the counter so I just used that to type my blog.  The battery on my Lenovo only last about 90 minutes, and when I am plugged in I usually change the battery charging mode to 50%.....supposedly, according to Lenovo, it extends the battery life.  Anyway, with it set at 50% charge I knew I would only have 40-45 minutes before the battery would die, and after that I would have no chance of using it again until I got a power supply.

At any rate, I managed to get the blog written and then TLE and I decided to go out shopping before Mark's memorial service.  Every time I wear my suit, which is not often, I can't find my black dress socks, and I end up having to go out and buy another pair....this is the third time in the past 12 months I have had to buy new black dress socks......I can't imagine where they disappear to in the Newell.....one of my life's great mysteries.  We drove down Day Creek to its intersection with Foothill where there is a shopping center with a Men's Warehouse, a BevMo (Beverages and More), an REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.), and a Best Buy.....all the stores we wanted to visit in one place.....park once and done.

I ended up finding a nice tie, some black dress socks and got out of Men's Warehouse for under $12.  Then it was over to Best Buy to buy a spare power supply for my laptop, and they actually had one for my Lenovo ($41......ouch).  Next up was BevMo where TLE bought some wine while I walked next door to a market to buy some half & half.  

Mark's memorial service was at 2 pm so we left Chris' home by 1 pm to be sure we arrived on time.....this is SoCal and just before Xmas so there is a lot of traffic.  We arrived at Richardson's Funeral Home by 1:40 pm to find most of the families already there.  Tears and hugs were in abundance.  The death of a loved one, and Mark was deeply loved, is always a difficult time for everyone involved and this was no exception.  Nevertheless, by the time the service was concluded folks were beginning to smile again, and that was a good sign.  One could see the closure part of the grieving process beginning to evidence itself.

Kate and Nick (daughter and son-in-law) hosted the reception at their home so we headed there next and spent a couple of hours talking about our memories of Mark before it was time to head back to Chris' home (where we are staying) for their Christmas party.  By the time we headed upstairs we were exhausted from all the socializing, but it was a good kind of exhaustion.  Friday saw us run the full range of emotions from deeply felt sadness to joyful highs, and that is what life is like sometimes.

Christmas Eve there will be more family get-togethers with Sunday, Christmas day, being the climax, and then we will begin the drive back to Wittmann and our Newell life....it won't be long until we are on the road to new adventures!

Thanks for stopping by!