my weekend by Margaret

Sunday I went to rehearsal at noon. We started teching at 12:30, and almost got through the whole thing when I left at 2. From the rehearsal report I received later, all was well. There were a few raindrops plopping when I went outside, so I called Donald who offered to come pick me up. As I was waiting for him in the lobby, I overheard people in the lobby talking about the weather, and the egg sized hail some people were getting not too far away. I didn't even know it was supposed to rain that day. Meanwhile, the sky was looking grayer and more ominous by the minute. Donald picked me up, and I thought we should put his car in my parents' garage if it was going to hail. There was room, since dad's van was already up at the farm.

Then we watched the news. If we'd left right then, we probably would have gone right between 2 big storm cells. Mom was having none of that. There were 3 big cells, moving generally northeast. The news reported a possible wall cloud downtown, amongst other proclamations of doom. I think the weather guys just love this stuff, so they can feel important for awhile. We waited until the map showed the colorful stuff on the east side of downtown. This whole time, there wasn't enough rain in our area to get the pavement even very wet. We left about 3:30.

Donald was in the passenger seat, with mom and Lucy in the back. Therefore, my mother couldn't tell me to drive slower. The drive was okay. Once we'd passed downtown KC, the roads weren't even wet. My family was only moderately annoying. We got to Hiawatha and went to the funeral home for the visitation, where everyone congatulated Donald and me for our engagement. There was mingling, and lots of hugging. I've come to accept the fact tht they all know who I am even though I can't remember their names. Eventually everybody cleared out and we went back to grandma's to eat around 7. Lots of people had left food, and oh so many sandwiches. The minister came over, and everyone told him stories about grandpa. Around 9 we retired to our rented cabins to sleep. These are actually quite cute little cabins just a short drive away. My folks have been staying there recently when we visit because there isn't enough room for everyone to stay at grandma's. Donald and I shared one with my cousin and her fiancee, and we ended up with the pull out sofa bed. It was one of those weird things where you share sleeping arrangements with people you don't really know. At least we only had to share the bathroom with 2 people. At grandma's we would have shared with 4.

On Monday, they got up at 6, and were out the door by 7. Donald and I got up and made it to grandma's for breakfast about 8:45. The service started at 11, but we were supposed to be there at 10 for some reason. So we sat around at the church for half an hour until everybody got there. It was a nice service. My grandpa worked hard all his life, and made a lot of friends. Everybody said nice things. He will be missed. We drove to the cemetary, and Donald was a pallbearer. There were army guys there who did a rifle salute. It was windy as hell, and my cousin's baby started crying at just the right time to break the tension. The church had a lunch afterwards, more sandwiches, then we went back to grandma's.

In the aftenoon, I got a phone message from Jen that there were police at my folks' house. Apparently, the garage door was malfunctioning, and decided to open itself at some point after we left. The neighbors noticed it, and went over to look. They found the door to the house unlocked, which they thought was wrong, because they always lock that door on their house, but we never do. Anyway, they called the police to come check it out, and the police went all through the house to make sure no burglars were there. Then they made rigged the garage door to stay shut.

We hung around grandma's until early evening, then came home. Donald rode with my dad in the van, in case dad was too tired to drive. I drove the car with mom, who made me drive at least 5 under the speed limit because they think they get better gas mileage that way. That was annoying, to say the least. I was in front to begin, then dad got in front, and couldn't seem to make up his mind what speed to drive. I hate following people on the highway. Especially 2 lane country highway with no lights. We got home around 9.

There it is. Thank you everyone for your nice thoughts.