Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.

So, we went to mom’s and made it back. The trip went easy enough (once we got out of Atlanta) and, though he’s sick of driving right now, JamesT has all new brakes on his car. (photo 1 | 2) It was a little weird hanging out in Dad’s garage so much. Mostly sad, I guess, because it has just been sitting for going on 3 years now. The calendar on the wall was April 2001. The paperwork in the filing cabinet is getting musty. I couldn’t stand it, so I took down everything from the bulletin board, family pictures, little hand-jotted reminder notes, business cards, the business license and class certificates, etc. It didn’t need to keep looking like somebody might be back in any minute to work there. Somebody, who is clearly not going to be. I told Mom to pack up all the files she wants to save and move them out of there before they mildew completely. The place clearly needs to be sold. I think it’s what Dad would have wanted, and I told her so. He built that place with his hands, it’s a good garage. It should be used as a garage, and not a giant storage room for the lawnmower (which James also fixed while we were there, btw.)

*sigh* Anywho. We really didn’t do much but drive up and back. James spent his two days in the garage covered in grease. Mom and I spent most of the time having the same conversations we always do: She complains about this or that. I tell her to sell the house. Maybe someday she will. She kept remarking she hoped that my sis and bro who have plans to meet up there on June 30 aren’t just coming up to forcibly move her. Mom, you know why they’re coming up on June 30. Part of me thinks its morbid to begin commerating someone’s deathday, but I do understand. I’d like to think we all visit in June in honor of Father’s Day instead. After over a year, I did do a drive-by of the cemetery, though. We were racing the start of a rain downpour and only had a moment to walk over, check out the spring flowers mom had placed, and then the drops started and we fled. Fastest visit ever.

Instead of deathday (which I actually only remember because of somebody else’s birthday), I think I’ll make a note here of good days in June: James’ Mom’s birthday is June 9. James’ Dad & Kathy’s wedding anniversary is June 13. I forgot both of those, so I’ll make an effort to remember them now.

Ugh. Speaking of anniversaries, I guess we have our one year coming up, July 8. James’ mom actually requested that we have a picture made because she wanted an 8×10 of us for her birthday. We do stupid snapshots, but we don’t do portraits. But… Sunday afternoon we went for a walk in Sugar Hollow Park in Bristol and had mom take some shots. This is the one we’re sending her, sometime. She’ll be on vacation over father’s day weekend, so we won’t see her.

The only other thing I can think to babble about is the magazine I’m looking at. In the closet of the guest room we stayed in, I found several old school notebooks and one copy of Computers & Electronics circa August 1984. We flipped through it with glee before bed one night, laughing at the ads and checking the accuracy of their “the future of computing” articles. We enjoyed it so much, we brought it home.

That is all. Oh.. um.. Headache, go away. Pizza, arrive. That is all.