#358 - Funeral

I had the most vivid dreams last night.

I woke up around five thirty in the morning because my bladder was yelling at me to pay it some attention. As stumbled into the washroom, bleary-eyed and not totally awake, I chuckled to myself at the strangeness of the dream. But like all good dreams I can’t remember a single thing about it other than it felt like it really happened.

I went back to bed and woke at nine fifteen when my alarm went off. The usual flurry of messages awaited me, and I had a request from an artist for more work. I got onto that first thing and then informed my supervisor that I would have to take a long lunch to attend my neighbour’s funeral service.

At ten thirty, I went downstairs and made myself four strips of bacon, toast and two fried eggs. I washed it all down with a cup of tea. It felt good to stop all the craziness of the day and take a moment for myself.

I worked on doing approvals until it was time to put on my suit. Naturally, that was the time kiddo #1 needed me to find the vacuum hose. I really didn’t have the time to find the fifty-foot hose that could only be in the basement, but I went down the stairs to where she was standing and pulled it out from under some other items stored there. She was literally standing in front of it but couldn’t be bothered to lift one or two items up to get to it.

I ran back up to the main floor and left the house, jumping into my car. According to the GPS I was going to get there exactly when the service started. Not good, because I still had to park the car.

Every transport truck or dump truck in the area appeared to be going in my direction. There was no way to make up the time and with every alternate route I chose, I found myself behind another slow-moving vehicle.

I arrived a little late and was directed by the funeral home staff to the right room. The service was already in progress, and all the seats were taken. I stood at the back in a small room, presumably for crying babies with a dozen other people.

The service lasted a little less than an hour and three people spoke about Bruce. The first was his brother-in-law, followed by his eldest nephew and then his wife Jasmine.

I learned my neighbor was an avid sports fan and had played many of them in his youth. I was surprised to hear that he was an accomplished skeet shooter and that he had his pilot’s license. Everyone spoke about his generosity and how he was always the first person to offer a hand. In Jasmine’s speech, our cat Pepper even got a mention because she had touched both Jasmine and Bruce’s life. Their whole family had dozens of Tik Toks, starring our little black princess.

The service was touching and they played one of Bruce’s favourite songs by the Beatles, In My Life. I listened to the words and tears threatened to form in my eyes. I thought I would make a great song for my own funeral one day.

The funeral procession left the building, and I stood outside and watched as the hearse went by, followed by the limo with the family members. I didn’t attend the burial, thinking it was best for close family and friends.

I made my way back home; the messages had already started piling up and I had some work to do when I had made it to my desk. The requests from the scene setup department, I made my priority. The I spent the rest of the day doing approvals. It was slow going, because the file I was working on had twenty plus scenes in it and many art layers to check. We are trying to reduce the number of paintings required for the show, but it does make checking the files more cumbersome and work intensive.

Robyn came home from class, and I went about making some sausages and roasted vegetables for supper. She wouldn’t be able to eat until eight o’clock, but at least she’d have a meal ready for her when she finished her long day. When she left for second job, I put on Lanterns and watched it from the living room, so I was close to the cooking food.

I sampled a bit of the food and made some boiled eggs to go along with it.

By the time Robyn returned I wasn’t hungry for a full meal, and she ate at the kitchen table.

We headed upstairs afterwards and watched an episode of Last Week Tonight. There was less humour in this episode about American healthcare companies but considering the topic I can’t really blame them.

Robyn started reading her book after it was over and I put on the Jo Koy comedy special on Netflix. He wasn’t a comic I was familiar with, but I loved his stories about his mom, and I found myself laughing along with the audience.

Robyn went to bed early, no surprise there, as it was her long day. I went downstairs determined to finish reading The Sand Pebbles novel and managed to accomplish it. The ending was a bit sad and a bit inevitable. Overall, it was a well written book with plenty of interesting characters. I’m glad I read it and I think it might make a good reference for the Adventure story class I signed up for two years ago that has been delayed twice. Maybe this year it will finally happen.

Fingers crossed.

My newest compact umbrella arrived today along with a shipment of Perrier. This umbrella is the smallest of the bunch. It’s very compact, to the point that you could put it in your front jeans pocket if you really wanted to.

I’m not sure how well it would stand up to the wind, but for the price, if it only lasts once, I won’t have any regrets. I still have a third umbrella arriving in October that is rated for the wind. It claims to be rated up to 100 km / HR winds. But I can’t imagine any umbrella that works that well. It does have a double vented canopy to let some of the air pass through and that can only make it better than the standard umbrella design.

I noticed I had a lot of credit accumulating on my Audible account. I just finished a book today and I noticed that one of my other favourite authors had just released a book. It was called The Land and Its People: Essays, by David Sedaris. If you don’t know who he is than you are a heathen. Crawl out from under your rock and read one of his books or essays. They are funny, heartwarming, sad and always, always entertaining.

I listened to an essay on the way home from the funeral and another one while I was working.

It’s almost one AM and tomorrow is likely going to be another busy and long day. I should be staying up late and writing more, but I can only do what I can do.

Time to call it a day.

Until tomorrow.