Overwhelmed

Wednesday cannot be over soon enough. The move and all of its accompanying details have me stressed out to the max. I've been on the verge of tears for the last 24 hours and I foresee another 24 hours of stress on the horizon. I just hope that Wednesday isn't a complete, total and utter mess.

The weekend went pretty well. This was the weekend my family went up to the cabin to bury my Grandpa Clare's ashes. There were thirteen Ayers family members that drove up to the Dome near Mora, Minnesota Saturday morning. We stopped by garden center and picked up a maple tree my folks had purchased earlier. Then we headed to to the Dome where we sat around and ate donuts and drank coffee while we hoped that the rain would cease for a little while so we could start the event.

Finally we decided that the rain wasn't going to slow to anything other than a nice drizzle, so my cousin's son and I grabbed some shovels and headed out to the spot in the yard that my folks had selected for the burial. We dug out a decent sized hole. Big enough for Grandpa's ashes and the roots of a six foot maple. We all gathered around the hole and chatted for awhile, while I held the box that contained the earthly remains of my Grandpa. We talked, and laughed. Told him how his cat was doing. Cried a little. The rain kept falling. We knew Grandpa was laughing at us fools standing out in the rain getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. I could even picture him standing inside the Dome looking out at us, pipe in one hand, cup of coffee in the other, shaking his head at us morons out there in the rain.

I put the box in the ground. My cousin-in-law Jim sprinkled in a few pinches of Grandpa's favorite pipe tobacco. My cousin's son tossed in a few shovels full of dirt and I placed the tree in the hole. Then the chorus of "more to the left", "no, right", "it needs to come more this way", "it's leaning towards Michael, no no no, too much, now it's leaning towards Karen." Eventually we had the maple resembling straight and we filed back into the Dome. We had lunch, because what else are you going to do when it's too soggy to do anything outside? After more socializing, eight of the crew headed back to the city. Only my dad, my cousin, his son, his daughter and I stayed overnight. Eventually the rain ended, the sun came out, and it was a pretty glorious evening. Nice enough for a parade through downtown Mora, which we got to enjoy while eating supper at the Mustang Steak House on Union Street.

It wasn't nearly as sad as I thought it would be, the burial. I had anticipated falling apart all over again. Maybe I was too distracted by all the people, maybe I was too itchy from the bug bites, maybe I'm just not as sad as I was a few months ago. I just felt glad that Grandpa was being laid to rest up at the cabin that he loved so much. I was happy that his ashes are right there with Grandma's and Heather's. Heck, he even gets to spend eternity next to two of our dogs. It just seemed fitting, and right. And so, in that way, it wasn't sad at all. And he would have been happy about that.