Tuesday, December 6, 2005

Tuesday Ramblings...

Hello.

I am back in town and things are starting to get back to normal. First off, I want to thank everyone for all the well wishes for me and my family. It's going to be a tough X-mas for Mom but with everyone's prayers she, and the rest of us, will be fine.

K and I drove over to Milton Friday evening and she finally got a chance to meet my family. She was pretty nervous..and I was too, but everyone welcomed her with open arms. We spent time catching up and talking and just having some good fellowship with each other. My mother's cousin Barbara (we call her Bobbie Francis) took a liking to K and I think she liked her too.

Saturday was pretty tough. The service was really good. K rode with me in the other family car on the way to the funeral home. She was nervous and felt that she was intruding, but I really needed her there. I am not good at funerals and having her in the car on the way really helped. She walked in with the family and Bobbie Francis found her and sat with her during the service. I waited for her after the service was over, and she rode with my uncle in the family car as I rode with mom to the cemetery. I was pretty good until the ride there and then I really broke down. With all the racism that I see in the world it was really special that everyone in Milton stopped to pay respects and I saw one person get off his motorbike and put his hand over his heart. That really got to me.

The service at the grave site was very nice and everyone came to pay their respects and I really appreciated it. I tried to be strong for mom, but everything got to me as well. It was nice seeing old family and friends I haven't seen in many years. I come back to Milton often, but I'm only there for a day or two so seeing people I haven't spoken to in forever was really nice.

Everyone came back to mom's place for food and fellowship, but since she's still in the FEMA trailer we had a tent and tables and chairs outside. It was really nice spending time with everyone and I really think K made an impression on a lot of my family. Everyone was coming up to me whispering that she's a really good person and one of my uncles said I need to hold on to her. Even the preacher said he was praying for good things to happen to us (does that mean I need to be finding a ring soon??) We went back to the hotel to watch the FSU-Va Tech game 'cause I didn't want to be home to watch that ass whoopin. I was surprised to watch that we really kicked the crap out of them and held them off at the end. Wonder who was calling those plays??? Sure wasn't Jeff Bowden... :)

Sunday was really relaxing, but pretty long. I took her down to Pensacola Beach and she was able to see the destruction of Ivan and Dennis first hand. This was the first time for me going down there so I was really awestruck at the devastation. The only thing I could say was, "Damn". There are places that will never be rebuilt and there are roads that will never be fixed. I was shocked and amazed. We had lunch on the beach and watched a little football. We drove back to Milton through Pensacola and looked at some more of the damage on the way back. We sat around with mom and the family for a couple hours and then we packed up and started to head back to Tally. We had our hugs and said our goodbyes.

She liked my family.

They loved her as much as they love me.

I am really fortunate to have her in my life. I don't honestly know what I would have done without her. She was a rock for me that entire weekend. It's something I can never repay her for but I owe her so much.

Monday and Tuesday have been me trying to get back in the groove of working again. It's hard, but life does go on and it stops for no one.

This is going to be a very busy month. I will keep you posted on everything.

And with that...

I am done.

Peace, Love and Thick Blankets

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