Aw, leave me alone, wouldja?

The universe oughta pick on someone else for a while.

After a full day of visiting the mortuary and going to Costco, Dean, the kids and I went out for the ultimate comfort food, Joe's Sushi. Like a dope I parked the car on the street. When we came out we found that the back window had been smashed in. Black glass was all over the street. The damn thing shattered into a million bits. Nothing was stolen, there was nothing to steal. Some little bastard was just being destructive.

I called the police and they gave me a number to call tomorrow to report it. I don't think it'll be an expensive fix. I'll call Allstate tomorrow but it might be better just to pay for it and leave it at that. I talked to Dede about it and she said somebody's trying to tell me it's time to stand on my own. Yeah, but couldn't they have waited a couple weeks? Man, this would have pissed Jim off, big time.

This morning Dean and I went to the mortuary to make the arrangements to have Jim cremated. The guy I talked to at Acheson and Graham told me, "Jim is in our care." Ok, good. While you're at it could you wake him up? Actually, it was a pretty good experience. The guy made things easy for me. He kept prefacing his sentences with, "In accordance with the laws of the state of California..." That got kind of funny after a while.

I'm going back tomorrow at 3. I need to make a positive ID. Getting that news was just a little bit of a jolt. I really didn't expect to ever see Jim's face again. The guy said, "In accordance with the laws of the state of California I have to ask you if you want us to close his eyes and his mouth. They consider it to be part of the embalming process." Well, Jim's not going to be embalmed but yes, I do want his eyes and mouth to be closed. No extra charge for that. Gee, thanks.

Dean and I had a nice lunch and then went to Costco. When we got home Dede was here vaccuuming. She was a bit frazzled. Dad had gotten into a nasty rage and was saying all kinds of outrageously mean things about Jim and me. She tried to talk to him and he got mad. She tried to remove herself and went to her room, Dad followed her and pounded on the door. She said he was totally out of control. I think he must have been doing that wild-eyed, venom-spitting, arrogant and nasty thing he was when we had the "Stacey's glasses" incident last Christmas. She said he had just eaten, actually it started while they were having lunch. I asked her what he was saying. She said, "You don't want to know." Ok, when you put it like that I HAVE to know. She told me a few things. Yep, they were pretty bad. Why does he resent us so much?

Poor Dede. She was pretty shaken and mad. Dede's the total brick of the family. For her to get that angry it had to be pretty bad. Dad came over as she was telling me about it and he was all cheerful. He said he came over to help. Dede started up the vaccuum cleaner again. She wanted nothing to do with him. Maybe he forgot what had just happened, maybe he saw how she was completely ignoring him and got that he shouldn't hang around. He left after a few minutes.

Before Jim's stroke I was going to get in touch with Dr. Griffin and start the process of having him declared imcompetent. He's digging in heels about the land sale. It's already in process. The land is being sold. We can't have him screwing that up. The way he's been acting lately shows us he's really losing it.

I took a nap this afternoon. When I got up I started poking around in the bedroom cupboards and found a big box of photos and our wedding album. Yay! I still need to see what we have in the storage trailer but at least I have these to start. It was fun looking at the photos. Lots of pix of my little girls. Sherri brought some pictures of Jim when he was a little kid. We have a good start for the photo collage. Kyle's going to help me with scanning tomorrow.

Oh yeah! Kyle's parents, Carl and Anne, are coming out from New York! I'll be so glad to see them. These are wonderful people. It's sweet of them to make the trip for Jim's send-off.

Hoo boy, I'm stuffed. I haven't been eating much lately. I've actually lost some weight this week. But tonight we found out that sushi overcomes grief. Just don't offer me a mint right now. "Oh, ees weffer theen..."

A few tears today. It's kind of a way of life right now. I got a call from Maria, the insurance woman at the hospital. They've figured up the bill. I'll settle with them on Tuesday.

What a weird day.