In which I relate my activities on the weekend of my dad’s birthday and ponder my situation now as compared to a year ago.
After work on Friday, I headed South and visited the Point crew. Stopped in at Saryn, Matt, & ‘Manda’s where Ian and Steve were hanging out. Then we went over to Jamie’s place and hung out for awhile. I was the oldest person around and I felt a little silly, but then again, the young ones are the ones in the same situation as me (SINKs: single income, no kids).
The next day I picked up my FedEx delivery from work and headed to my mom’s. It was my dad’s birthday so we went and visited his grave. It was the first time I had seen the memorial stone. (It wasn’t installed until late this summer.) I got some pictures. We also stopped by and visited my grandmother and uncle Don. We picked up come groceries and headed home.
Late that night, Matt turned on a movie and then fell asleep, after getting me hooked on it, of course. The movie was The Straight Story. IMDb describes it as, “73-year-old man takes a six week trip to mend his relationship with his older brother, who is ill.” The main character is an elderly man from Iowa and he rides his lawnmower to Mt. Zion, Wisconsin. As you might expect, the characters, scenery, situations, etc. are fairly familiar to me. In particular, the main character reminds me of my maternal grandfather. If you ever wanted to get an idea of the kinds of male role models I grew up with, you could do worse than to watch this movie. (Besides, it’s directed by David Lynch and is #135 in IMDb’s Top 250.)
Sunday I got my mom’s (non-working) riding mower on the trailer and packed up some food, pumpkins, and liquor (my mom was cleaning out the kitchen cupboards). I headed to Point and donated the liquor to Matt & Ian’s bar, as well as a 40 lb pumpkin for the bar’s party next weekend. Then home.
On Monday after work, I went over to Joyce, Brad, and Alex’s. IT WAS SNOWING! Argh! Otherwise it was just a nice, casual visit and I got to see Jess too!
Today I took a half day from work because I wasn’t feeling well, A lot of my friends seemed to be sick today too. Looks like something is going around.
It’s been a strange year and a half. Last spring my dad was sick but living a pretty normal life, I was in a relationship that made me happy, and I was getting back into the ISP career. In the fall, my dad passed away and my relationship had ended. As the next year passed, DataWave got bought out and my job became more insecure. But now it’s been a year and I am finding my footing again. There’s a sense of normalcy and things are looking up. I am still unsure which direction I want to go, but I think I am better prepared for some change. I just hope I figure out what direction I want to go before I get a big shove out of where I am.