More about our Sunday

After we got finished bird watching, we went to Dairy Queen for breakfast. First time we'd ever gone there for a sit down breakfast. They haven't been serving breakfast all that long, so we never thought about it. It was a pretty good meal.

So, it was back home to start on the garage. It was really a good day weather wise to work. It was overcast, and not too hot. About 6 pm, we decided we'd done enough for the day and were happy with our two days progress. I think we need another day, maybe two. It's slow going. If paper were magnetic, I'd be the magnet! I've got boxes and boxes of paper and other stuff I should have thrown away a long time ago. So, I'm sorting: Keep, trash or burn. Chris moved all of his stuff outside and sorted through it and brought it back in. It's an organizational project for him.

For me though, I had a walk down memory lane, I found myself coming across some unexpected memories of lost loved ones.

I found a picture of my grandfather "PaPa".

And from my grandmother "MayMay", I found so many cards and letters and coupons which she loved sending to us. It was one of her favorite things to do - send us coupons with a note buried somewhere inside, she'd ask you if you got the coupons, and you'd say yes, and she'd want to know if you found anything you could use, and of course the answer was yes... and she'd know if you had gone through them or not depending on whether you knew about the note -- I missed making her a doctor's appointment one time because I only thought I had gotten coupons, another time, I didn't see the note to bring her some of her favorite candy the next time I came to vist. I learned that I had better go through the coupons carefully.

And from my grandmother "Grandma", I found a Valentine she sent me when I was in elementary school.

I found a couple of notes from my friend Sandi who died in a car accident. I also found a few cards from her parents. I also found the thank you note they sent me for the scrapbook I had made of photos they'd never seen of Sandi.

I found photos from my friend Janet's rehearsal dinner. Janet died of an aneurysm at age 36. We were lifelong friends - our mother's met when we were babies. We grew up together. I was in the Czech Republic, we'd taken a lunch break from rafting down a beautiful river, the Vltava, I was standing outside looking at a castle on the side of the river when I learned of her death. We had one more day of rafting and camping planned, but we cut our trip short. The guys in the group hitch-hiked back to the cars and brought our rental to us. We had to drive 2 hours to our penzion, then we packed as fast as we could and drove 4 hours to Munich, Germany and caught the next flight out. We made it home in time for her funeral.

I found a photo of my friend Penny from nursing school. She died of an aneurysm in her late 20's. I recently saw her mom and she asked me if I had any photos of Penny. I told her I thought I did, but had no idea where they were. She asked me to please send her a copy if I ever ran across them.

I found a photo from my prom, my date was Jimmy. He died late last year in a motorcycle accident.

A bittersweet walk down memory lane today.