Another day down

One more exhausting day done with. Because of family scheduling issues, there was a gap today between yesterday's calling hours and tomorrow's funeral mass. Yes, tomorrow is just the mass, though I suppose I can't say just. It will be a full Catholic funeral mass with all the bells and whistles at St. Patrick's in Newport, followed by a reception at Assumption Hall. Rumor has it the St. Pat's will be packed, something that usually only occurs at Christmas Eve and Easter Morning. I'm pretty sure Dad would be annoyed at all the fuss. He'd prefer to sit in the back left pew and contemplate the universe in peace.

Burial won't be until Saturday since Dad wanted to be cremated and his ashes buried with my brother Paul. I think I'm dreading that most of all since it will be with full military honors. Dad deserves them, though again I can hear him in the back of my mind complaining about all the fuss. I have a serious love/hate thing going with the military honors ceremony. Nearly forty years hasn't made hearing Taps easier or kept me from jumping out of my skin at the first volley of the 21 gun salute...even though I know it is coming.

I'm hoping to get some more sleep tonight. Last night's two hours of actual sleep were plagued with nightmares. I finally woke up enough to turn on my bedside lamp so I could go back to sleep. What can I say, the trick from my childhood to send nightmares away still works. I stayed up all morning baking. I made an excellently decorated apple pie...I'll post the picture later this week. It had pine trees and a deer. I made it special to make Matt and Jayme laugh, since it is bow season. I also made whole wheat cinnamon bread, and pumpkin muffins and corn bread. Did all the dishes, worked on some watercolor paintings...which will take a couple of days to finish. And then went to the family dinner. That is an experience in exhaustion all in itself. You'd think I'd be exhausted enough to sleep. But here I am typing away, listening to the rain fall.

Worse case scenario, I'll sleep all weekend while I house sit for friends out in the middle of no where. I can't wait. Just me, my sketch pad, the dogs (theirs, not mine) to watch over me and some much needed peace and quiet.