The great thing about vacation, I’ve decided, is that I can go to the office in shorts and a t-shirt, having not shaved in three days, and NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING while I’m there.

It’s so cool.

I spent much of yesterday morning trying to kill myself on my roller blades. Went to the Alpharetta Greenway, which is a 6-mile long stretch of pavement in (appropriately enough) Alpharetta. Managed to fall on my butt twice within seconds of getting out of the car, but then did okay for the next hour. Did have ONE face-plant on the pavement, but I had pads and a helmet on (glad I decided to wear that), and nobody saw it. I did get some cool scratches on the helmet, though. And on my elbow. Had a great time and sweated (swat?) like a pig. I’m most definitely middle-aged. After a few miles, my back and ankles were KILLING me. I ended up taking the skates off and walking (barefoot) the last 1/4 mile back to the car.

Had a great dinner at Bucca de Peppo’s last night and I decided to leave this evening instead of Friday night. I’ll spend a few days with a friend’s sister and other family in the suburbs of Philadelphia, and then I’ll continue north to Ontario sometime Sunday. Looking forward to the trip and (hopefully) getting to see some of Philly.

With the change of plans, this morning has been rather hectic. I’d planned on using this week to leisurely clean the house and maybe make some improvements and spruce up the lawn. Instead, I’m working like a maniac to get the house somewhat clean, get my clothes washed, charge various camera batteries, get packed…and I still need to get an oil change.

So what the heck am I doing writing this? I need to get busy!

The plan was to fly to Philly Thursday morning, drive to New Jersey, stay overnight, have Grandma’s funeral Friday morning, and be back in Atlanta at about 9:30 last night.

It almost worked.

The four of us did indeed fly up on Thursday and the trip was uneventful. We rented a car at the airport (a Chevy Cobalt, whatever that is) and drove to Clinton, NJ, a very pretty little town which was incorporated in 1865 but had been bustling for nearly 150 years before that. Saw the high school that Andi attended, Herb’s old elementary school, an historic mill, etc., etc., etc. We had lunch at a diner and dinner at a bowling alley, then hit the sack at a Hampton Inn after a very long day.

Friday (yesterday) was overcast but pleasant. We went to the funeral home at around 9:30 and received the few guests that appeared until around 11:00. Most of Grandma’s friends have already died, but Herb had a few old classmates who dropped in and one of Grandma’s old neighbors and her son showed up. A Methodist pastor gave a brief eulogy with passages from Ecclesiastes, Thesalonians, Psalms, Timothy and Romans. After his comments, Jenny put a bag of lavender in the casket – she’d gotten in for Grandma in Croatia a couple of weeks ago – and I added my elephant picture. She and I faded into the background while Herb and Andi said their goodbyes. The three of them then left for the car and I stuck around to help load the flowers – and Grandma – into the hearse.

The cemetery, just down the road from Grandma’s old house in Hampton, is beautiful. There was a very short graveside service (I don’t remember any of it at all) before she was buried next to her husband, Harold, who died in 1988. The man who actually dug the grave and buried her was a very old friend of Herb’s – they met as children, I believe. Jenny and I spent 30 minutes or so walking around the old section of the cemetery, looking at stones from the 18th and 19th centuries, before we went back to the funeral home. The three of them changed there. I opted to remain dressed as I was.

We had a good lunch at another diner and headed back to Philadelphia. During the trip, we learned that our flight home (scheduled to leave at 6:40) had been cancelled due to storms and we’d been moved to a 7:40 flight. Which became an 8:40 flight. Then 9:00. Then 10:00. Then 11:00. Then 10:00. Then 11:20. Then 10:40.

We began boarding at around 10:15. Herb, thankfully, had gotten 1st class tickets for all of us, so I was able to stretch out, suck down a vodka and coke, and relax a bit….a very good thing because we stayed on the ground for close to two more hours. I got home at 3:15 this morning and have never been so happy to see my own bed.

I’ll be taking it easy until next Friday – cleaning, paying bills, doing yardwork. On Friday, I will drive to (you guessed it) Philadelphia to attend a friend’s niece’s graduation party, and I’ll head up to Ontario for another week before going back to work on the 18th.

Jenny’s grandmother died in her sleep yesterday morning. She was 93 years old and the only grandmother I ever had. I met her either just before or just after Jenny and I got married, and she immediately began treating me like her own grandson. She continued to do so for the next 13 years. I loved her a great deal, and I will miss her.

I got to see her for the last time last Wednesday. She was in the hospital and doing rather poorly – something about fluid building up in or around her lungs – but she seemed to know who I was and held my hand for several minutes while I talked to her. She seemed amazed that it was 2:00 in the afternoon and asked me a few times, “What did I do all morning?” As if, at 93 and in failing health, she felt that sleeping was wasting time.

She also wanted coffee, pointed out to me that she liked sweets, and mused that “I must look crazy” in her oxygen mask.

In all the years I knew her, I never saw her in anything but stoic good spirits, and I scolded her many times for not letting people know when she had any physical ailments. On each of those occassions, she’d sort of grin sheepishly and promise me that she’d let someone know the next time her legs hurt or she wasn’t eating or couldn’t sleep or whatever it was….and I knew she wouldn’t do it. In my mind, she was the classic down-East farm wife: if you break your leg, take an aspirin and sleep it off. No need to bother anybody else with your own problems.

Her favorite foods – a source of constant amusement to me – were shrimp and french fries. In the last year, she also added clam chowder to that short list. Whenever we took her to dinner, it was foremost in everyone’s mind that the restaurant have shrimp and french fries. She never seemed to tire of that diet, so while we’d all load up on pasta and fish and steak, she’d happily dig into her shrimp cocktail and could usually be counted upon to help me finish my fries.

This morning, I was given a dresser, a nightstand and a vase that were hers for the 5 years that she lived here in Georgia. I’ve installed them in my newly-finished guestroom. It’s nice to know that those items, along with two chairs that came from her New Jersey home, will be in my house and serve to remind me of her in the years to come.

Her funeral will be in New Jersey on Friday morning. Jenny, Herb, Andi and I will fly up on Thursday for the services. I hope to be able to put a picture of an elephant in her coffin. Sounds weird, I know, but she liked elephants and the four of us had a wonderful time last Mother’s Day when we visited the zoo and I took the picture for her.

As irreligious as I sometimes appear, I do have my own quirky blend of faith; I know “Gramma” is in a much better place today and I have no doubt that she’s happy.

It’s 7:30 in the morning and I’m sitting here in shorts and a t-shirt putting together a cookie-cutter blog because I can’t think of anything interesting to do.

I could go to work, of course, but that’s just not interesting.

In just 5 short days, I’m free for two weeks. Still haven’t decided when exactly I’ll leave the friendly confines of Atlanta and head for the great unwashed north. That’s not important. What is important is that I won’t be compelled to go to work next Monday. Actually, half of the people in the country won’t have to go to work next Monday (it being a holiday and all), but I don’t really care about them. I won’t have to go to work Tuesday, either. Or Wednesday.

Hell, I won’t have to go until two weeks after Monday.

But what to do this weekend. That’s the toughie. Chattanooga is looking like a reasonable place to spend a couple of days before I head for the far north (Ontario, for those of you keeping track). I’d also thought about Savannah, Jekyl Island, or any other beach…and Washington, D.C. That’d be a fun culture swing, huh? From D.C. on July 4th to Magenetawan on July 6th.

I sort of watched a movie last night. Shark Tales was, I think, the name of it. It’s a cute little Dreamworks animated piece that seemed to have an unstated theme of “be nice to gay people.” As I’m already nice to gay people, and as I worked (literally) all night Saturday, I fell asleep halfway through it. Was going to watch Raising Helen after that, but opted (wisely) to just leave the television on while I fell asleep again.

I really dread working this week. Too many deadlines that I can’t hope to meet, and I’m sure I’ll be inundated with little digs from Scott this morning because I left yesterday morning (after I’d completed all of my stuff) without mentioning to him or anyone else that I was leaving. He and Jay then spent the next three hours calling me at home to whine about that fact.

I wonder if I can even get to this page at work. I doubt it. More than likely, the internet Nazis will have it blocked because “blog” appears in the URL.

Be interesting to find out, though.

Oh! I need to once again subject my laptop to the horrors involved with the installation of AOL for a couple of weeks. I wonder if those people will ever figure out that I have no intention of actually signing up for their service… Every year, I take advantage of their “40 Gazillion Hours Free!” offer for two weeks (in Canada), and every year I get back to Atlanta and cancel. It’s not like I came up with the offer…

Must get ready for work.