Thursday

Middle of the night, I was woken up out of a half sleep by a loud thud noise, that sounded like someone was in the house. I figured it was not the case, and Steve didn't wake up, but after lying there awhile I couldn't go back to sleep, so I got back up and walked out to the living room/kitchen and looked around. Didn't go all the way up front though. Went back to bed. But my right shoulder is sore, so I can't lay on it, so I had to lie on my left side which had my back to our open bedroom door. I couldn't sleep, or relax. Because I couldn't hear anything over the fan, either. So I finally got back up and locked the door in between our room and the living room. I knew if Steve woke up in the middle of the night he'd be like...what...but it was how I finally went back to sleep, sort of. lol  It was a crappy night's sleep regardless.

I watched part of the funeral this morning. Not because I remember Jimmy Carter, but because it was sort of fascinating watching all the former presidents, first ladies, former VPs and their wives, all in one place at once. The interactions amongst them really was kinda interesting.

Kaylee took her first dose of the beta-blocker last night. She wrote me today that she had energy, could think, went up and down the stairs multiple times with minimal issues, and didn’t pass out or almost pass out. That she’s trying not to get her hopes up too high. But that her highest heart rate today was 106, and usually it’s 120-150, and it doesn’t feel like her body had to work so hard today. She’s excited, even trying not to get too excited, but hard not to get excited when she feels decent for the first time in a long time. So that’s promising. :)

Our plumbing has a problem, Steve thinks tree roots in our pipes, and we've had to call in the roto-rooter people to come over tomorrow morning. So he's taking one of our toilets off, and putting down stuff for them to walk over, put their machinery on, and we're crossing our fingers like crazy that they can get through and make it okay, and not that we have to dig up our entire back yard to fix this the hard way. Because that's just what we'd need to add financially among other things. :p So...tomorrow by 1 pm we should know how bad or good it is.

I've now read two eulogies that were super full of crap. One was a local guy I shall not name, who I flew for a long, long time ago, in my mid-20s. He was lecherous, a heavy drunk, heavy gambler and partier. He was the one who said he'd buy me a special outfit if I would wear it into a casino with him and be his good luck charm.  He did illegal drugs, brought girlfriends out to an airport hangar (he was married of course), and any time I would fly him home, he'd be so drunk in the back that he'd pass out. I would land, shut down, go to the back and open the door and have to wake him up. He'd then drive home. I tried to get him to take a cab, or offered to drive him myself, or ask him if there was someone I could call, but he'd drive home every time, "I'm fine". If he never killed anyone on the road, it's a miracle.  Eventually I decided even if I WAS broke, I didn't need that kind of job.  Well, he just died, in his 60s. His obit was about what an amazing husband and father he was, how he married the love of his life 30 years ago, what a kind and gentle man he was, etc. I read it in disbelief, like...did you know? If you just look at his face you can tell he's a schmutz. Did his family really not know? It was enough of a disconnect I just sat there and read the whole thing with one eyebrow up.

And then it happened again. Steve was contacted by a family member, Justin. He matter of factly let us know that his dad Mark had died, and he wanted us to pass it on to our side of the family. Mark was the son of Ann's sister Ruth and Hank. Mark tore apart the family. Stole from his parents, broke their hearts. Disappeared on his kids, stole from THEM. Stole from a lot of people and places, actually. Had a record, of course. Was big into drugs, drinking, stealing, just rode wild for most of his life. His parents had to cut him out of their lives and it devastated them. His kids chose to cut him out of their lives and didn't really seem to care any more.  Then a local church contacted us and said they were looking for family members to let them know Mark had died and to see if we had any contact information for anyone else in the family. We didn't even know he was in town. We said the son had already let us know, and we let our side of the family know. The obit came out, and it talked about a life beautifully lived (yeah) and "two devoted sons" (no) and life of love and faith (uh huh) and stuff. It also called his mom "Edna", which was her legal name, by which she never went, so obviously a family member didn't write the obit. Basically good money on a bet he found this church where he could con them into giving him assistance and such. Here, you can read about this ray of sunshine yourself: Obit Honestly, it's sad. Not one person wrote an online tribute to him. Nobody signed the guestbook. His sons didn't go to his funeral. That's the life he chose, the path he continued down into his 60s. How depressing. But reading the obituary, maybe he made some friends at that church. Or someone who didn't know him that well made it sound good. If that was me, I'd rather they just say "Laura died on this date, is preceded in death by, is survived by, and in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to this." It's better than making up a bunch of crap. "She was so friendly, extroverted and personable! She lit up every room she walked into! She was such a people person, you couldn't help but be drawn to her bubbly personality!" Mmm hmm.

So farewell to two people who were kind of skeezy, whose last public 'appearance' documents at least made them sound lovely, whether they were or not...

Maybe I should try to be friendlier.  *sigh*  Nah.