Last week was a bit of a blur in the aftermath of my uncle's passing. It took a while for them to publicly announce it and to get the plans in order, which meant I spent a couple days just trying to process everything and plan out how we were going to work out the travel amidst the rest of our schedule. But first, Craig had a road trip to Saskatchewan, which was stressing me out more than usual given the forecast for a major winter storm that was hitting Saturday and Sunday. He left Friday morning and it was business as usual that day. We had lacrosse that night--slightly edited team for the winter season, same crappy result--and then we hunkered down to see what the weekend would bring.
Saturday morning it was already snowing more than expected. I had hoped to take the kids out to lunch that day and make a stop at Wegmans for snacks. We had been too busy prior, and I figured it might be better to wait anyway after seeing pictures of empty bread shelves posted online. But between lazy kids and the beginning of my to do list, we were having trouble getting out of the house when I wanted to, and by the time we were all ready, it looked really crappy out and I didn't really want to drive in the few inches of snow we already had. So, that officially marked the start of our snowbound weekend. By this point, Jacob's first basketball game on Saturday had already been canceled, and we had a strong feeling lacrosse practice Sunday would follow suit. I was also not planning on going to church since digging out would probably take a while, and I wasn't about to get up at the crack of dawn for that on a weekend. So all we really had to do was keep up with shoveling and hope that Craig could get home on Sunday. We played with magnetic tiles, tolerated Jacob's current video game obsession (probably an entire post on that soon), and watched some movies. I shoveled multiple times. I tried mac and cheese in the Instant Pot. I drank wine.
 |
| Magnetic tiles - Carter's creation in the back, and mine (a challenge from the idea book) in the front |
 |
| The other side of Carter's fancy fort. Those triangles shoot as a defense mechanism. |
 |
| I really sort of loved it when the dinosaur ended up on my tower. |
Unfortunately, by the time we had enough snow to play in, it was super cold and windy, and the snow was actually too fluffy to be fun. No snowballs or snowmen, and it was even impossible to climb snow piles to sled down because you instantly sunk into the pile up to your hip. So that was sort of a bust. By early Sunday we had 15.5" in our backyard! Thank goodness for the neighbor that came to help me with the apron, since a foot of snow in the road leaves quite a mess from the plow.
 |
| The window screen made this a tough shot, but this was Sunday morning's view from the kitchen. That lump in the back is the neighbor's car drifted in, and in the bottom left is our bird feeder, which had a legit foot of snow on top. |
 |
| Breakfast pizza was preferred, but mac and cheese was pretty fun. |
The snow continued to blow and fall, and by Monday morning we had a few more inches. Craig had some work to do that morning, so I was back out shoveling again. I thought my back had about had it, as I had to stop and stretch every so often. Apparently 20 inches over three days is my limit! It had been a lot of work, though I'm thankful it was light snow. Long story short, I'm over snow at this point, but it looks like more is in the forecast.
In addition to the extra snow, Monday started out stressful. We had a couple mishaps involving our vehicles--one involving our garbage can and another involving a car that wouldn't start (sixth time's a charm, I guess). We went out to lunch, got Craig an oil change, and finally restocked at Wegmans before heading off to Buffalo. It was bitterly cold and some of the roads were still pretty awful, but Carter was cozy and content...
The boys stayed for a couple hours of funeral home time, but then Craig took them out for dinner and they left for Rochester shortly after they returned. Craig had work commitments the next day and the boys had school anyway, so he came home with them and I stayed for the funeral the next day, with the plan to get a ride home from my cousin and aunt.
The funeral home included the usual mix of gut-wrenching sadness and pleasant family conversation. I truly love my family and relish any time I get to spend with them, even if the reason is the worst possible. I had some genuinely good chats and many good memories were shared. The pics I supplied from my scanned stash were definitely enjoyed by all. But it was so sad seeing my uncle laying there and knowing I'd never talk to him again, knowing he'd miss his son's wedding, and generally just coming to terms with the new normal his family is facing. My cousin's fiancée probably wins the award for the toughest position, as she's still relatively new to the family and had to meet lots of new people, accept congratulations on the engagement, and receive condolences on this loss, practically all in the same breath. She ended up overwhelmed by the amount of love and support she saw, and seems genuinely grateful to be marrying into a family like ours, so that was nice, but I can only imagine how overwhelming this all was. On a personal note, I very much enjoyed meeting my uncle's sister-in-law (his brother passed a couple years back) and his niece. They were a lot of fun to talk to and I was sorry I didn't have the chance to know them while my uncle was still alive. But the stories about both brothers were classic!
As I mentioned in my last post, my uncle was one-of-a-kind, and his arrangements reflected that. The family wore St. Louis Cardinals attire at the wake, there was fishing gear in the corner, and he sported casual attire in the casket. In addition, the service was filled with lighthearted recollections of his unique nature, and the recessional music was the 70s classic, "Spirit in the Sky", which caught us all off guard and led to lots of smiles and happy tears on the usually sad walk out of the church behind the casket. It was all perfectly him.
 |
| This is on the wall of my old bedroom, and while it's been there a while, seeing it above my suitcase the morning of the funeral, it definitely took on richer meaning. It's absolutely true. |
I came home on Tuesday evening after some bonus family time, and then it was back to the grind on Wednesday. It was a busy few days at work, and Jacob had two nights of practice and a game tonight (officially his 18th straight loss with the same team--at least he scored, but yeah, he's not happy). His first basketball game is tomorrow, which is super exciting. He's been waiting for it seemingly forever, and with his confidence that he can make it to the NBA, I guess there's nothing to do but take the first step. He did sort of show up his coach last night, I guess. His coach was encouraging them to do lay-ups and not shoot from three-point range. But when he asked if anyone could make it from out there, Jacob piped up (of course) that he can make 9-out-of-10. So the coach had him shoot. Swish. And another time. Swish. At which point the coach said, "Okay, we're done," and later admitted he had some egg on his face! So, we have a good three-point shooter, it appears, but we'll see how he does in an actual game with teammates and opponents!
I'm glad to have another weekend to hopefully recharge and get back to some sort of normalcy, even if chances are I'll come out of it more tired--as usual. It was a tough week, but I'm hoping better times are ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment