Week Ending 6/25

 So, we flew out to Vermont last week for Gramma Cathy's memorial service. (I tried not to mention that we were going, leading up to it, on the principle of "don't tell the internet your house is going to be empty for a week.") 

Originally, we'd all planned to go but in the end D begged off. He had classes and besides, it was better for someone to stay and watch the cats. I was actually much more comfortable with him doing that, and really, he didn't know his great-grandmother that well. The trip wasn't for him. 

I admit, I was worried about the trip. The day before we left, I'd pretty much convinced myself it was impossible. It wasn't. It wasn't easy but it wasn't impossible. 

We left Sunday, at like 2:00AM... drove down to Louisville, flew to Boston, where we rented a car and drove up to Vermont. I say "we" but Juno did all the actually work. I slept in the car to Louisville, slept in the airport, slept on the plane and slept in the car to Vermont... you get the picture. Juno even arranged for me to have a wheelchair in the airports, which was really great because I never would have been able to walk the whole way. So, yeah, not impossible.

I spent most of the week on my mom's couch, dozing, reading, and generally laying around like a lump. Mom rented me one of those motorized scooters, for getting around her building. I didn't use it much but, like the wheelchair, it was great when I did use it. I would have been even more whipped out if I'd walked the whole way from the parking lot to the door to the elevator to her apartment and back without it.

The memorial service was on Wednesday - the Summer Solstice - which was perfect for my Gramma Cathy, the druid. The service itself, in the memorial garden of All Saints in South Burlington, was very nice. One can overlook the fact that, on the other side of the trees surrounding the garden is a busy intersection with cars, trucks, motorcycles, construction vehicles, etc. drive by constantly. 

I also choose to overlook the general Christian prayer part of the service, since it meant something to most of the attendees, if not to me or, I believe, to Gramma Cathy. Those parts weren't for us. The deacon laid her ashes to rest in a spot near where Grampa Ted's ashes had been laid years ago. My mom said a few lovely words. My Uncle Kirk said a very lovely words (fewer, mom said, than he had planned) and then asked my mom to say a few more words (about my Gramma Cathy celebrated the Solstice... I think the priest noticed the paganism of it :) ). Then I went up and read my Images of God piece that I'd written about Gramma Cathy (and posted here a while back). The priest said later he was very moved. 

All in all, it was a lovely service. It was even nice to see my Uncle Kirk (who I haven't seen in like 30+ years, don't always get along with, and frankly doubt I'll see again). I did not, however, go to the lunch afterward.  

Thursday, I went to Overlook Park - so named because it's a nice hillside spot overlooking Lake Champlain. 

I spent 20 minutes sitting on a rock, looking at the lake. Then I rested for the rest of the day.

The return trip Friday was pretty much the reverse of the outbound trip... except we left at 1:00PM. You might be tempted to think that would be better. It wasn't. By the time we got to plane, around 8:00PM, I had discovered whole new kinds of exhaustion... the kind where all I could do was rock back and forth, and put everything I had into not screaming and generally freaking out on the plane. Still, we made it home.

I rested Saturday and Sunday and plan to rest for... well, pretty much July.

It was worth it every minute of it.

Onward.