Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Weekend Musings

What a perfect waste of a three-day weekend! Temperature never got above 50°, and it rained. And rained. And rained. Still, it's better than what some places in the midwest experienced, so I should be thankful for that.
S1 came to town for the weekend. Which set up an interesting event on Friday night. My siblings, my mom and I had dinner together. By ourselves. No spouses, no kids (or as S3 said--"no outsiders"). Not on purpose, of course. One niece at college, one in Europe, one at a graduation party, and the nephew was playing out of town in a basketball tournament. He was accompanied by his father, BIL1.2 was left in Oregon, and the other two spouses are deceased. Anyway, we realized that it hadn't been just us in one sitting in probably 32 years!
Speaking of graduation--my youngest niece graduates on Saturday morning. It's an outdoor ceremony, and despite the rain that we'll be getting this week, it's supposed to be nice on Saturday. It's going to be a bittersweet day though--it will also be one year since Ray's sudden death. Still hard to even think it's been that long...
The niece in Europe is having all sorts of fun. Got to walk through Amsterdam's red light district. I think it was an eye-opener for her. Not exactly sure where she's at right at the moment. London, Paris and Rome were on her agenda...
Memorial Day was a bit different for us this year. I've mentioned in previous years that Memorial Day was sort of a "lost" holiday for the family, as none of the family (going back a couple of generations) ever served in a war. Heck, only a couple have logged any sort of military time. But this year saw us head out to the cemetery where almost all of my family can be found. We didn't go out together, but all eventually headed out there. Don't know about the others, but I liked it.

2 comments:

Cheeky Minx said...

It seems we had the same weather pattern of late. We've had blustery rain and flash flooding!

I hope the sun comes out for your niece's graduation. It's a wonderful achievement, even through the sadness.

xxx

Richard, Shhh... said...

Back in the day for US, Memorial Day was one for all deceased veterans and remembering our own relatives within our South Denver Dutch family. At that time, only Grandma & Grandpa were gone so we'd all visit at different times & leave something on their graves. NOW, the formerly live vets (all 3 brothers) are deceased so it takes on a very different tone for me, now.

As a confirmed beer drinker & undoubted patriot, you might just find my post tonight interesting. And not JUST becuz it's the first one in awhile not on OHNT! LOL I made my first video ever today & put it up (it's G-rated, too, and involves BEER!)