TGIF (Traveling the Good Intentions Freeway)

It was somewhat fitting to attend a funeral on Good Friday. It certainly adds some realism to the story from long ago.

Last Monday, the mother of my high school BFF died. Since she was suffering from lung cancer, it wasn't completely unexpected. Still, as I can attest, it doesn't make it any easier. I wanted to be there for Julie any way I could.

So I hit the road at 6 a.m. yesterday to be up in Luck for the 10:30 service. Our friend Gail, another classmate, just happened to be home from North Dakota for Easter weekend, so she was able to join me. It wasn't the best circumstances for a mini-reunion but it was very nice to see them both again.

After the luncheon, I headed to my mom's, a.k.a. Wireless Dead Zone, a.k.a. No Chance of Blogging Here.

As long as I was "in the neighborhood," I figured I better put in another shift of pricing stuff for the garage sale of the century. I swung by the cemetery first to say hello to Dad. It was two years ago at this time that we knew we'd be saying our final goodbyes soon. Two years. Wow. I keep thinking it "just happened" last year. No wonder I had so much to tell him!

Spent the afternoon and evening "working." My sister Romey, who made the beautiful arrangement pictured, stopped by to help, too. That was appreciated! The three of us took a break for supper and then were back at it. She went home, I slept on Mom's couch and resumed this morning, fueled by a homemade breakfast of "thin pancakes."

Mom asked: "Have you ever made thin pancakes?"
My response: "Not on purpose."

Of course, then I have to admit I make them out of box so they are always fat and fluffy. The thin ones were good, though! Much tastier than my typical bowl of Fiber One.

Got busy after breakfast because I wanted to hit the road by early afternoon. Our challenge was this: There were several (and by several I mean close to 10) bins and boxes of stuff that hadn't been sorted or priced or marked. They were just FULL of a "variety" of stuff from Car Wax from 1983 and 3 sets sets of "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" monkeys to a broken Salad Shooter purchased at a different garage sale – with some very, very beautiful glassware in between.

I think we (as in all my siblings and me) assumed (and you know what that means) that the items were priced. So it was a surprise and I was cranky about it. I tried to understanding every time my mom would explain why she bought something, why she had to have it. "Well I was going to make this ..." "Well I was going to make that..." "Well I was going to decorate this..."

You get the picture.

She admits she had intentions and she knows all about where that road leads.

I said, "Mom, did you ever notice that there is only a ROAD to Hell that is paved with good intentions but there is a HIGHWAY to Hell that gets people there much quicker?" I told her we couldn't fault her for being creative and having creative ideas. It just resulted in a lot of stuff... says the Daughter Pot to Ma Kettle.

Got out of there by 12:30 but this time when I got home, I was not inspired to clean or declutter. I'm just plain tired! Just wanted to unpack and watch the Badgers in their Final Four match with Kentucky.

And that, my friends, was well worth staying up for! Go Bucky!