When it rains...

I'm in a bit of a funk today because of two things:
1) Yesterday, when I came home for lunch, Max and Casey and Crystal were at my place. We had a fun time visiting, and I enlisted Max and Casey to help load my riding lawn mower - which I'd arranged to sell to John Greene (Gigi's boy/man-friend) - into my truck to transport to its new home. So, we loaded it in, and prepared to go on our way - Casey, Crystal and Max in Casey's truck and me in mine. Or so I thought.

I left the driveway and headed down the street to the corner and waited for the other guys to follow. In my rear-view mirror, I watched as Casey's truck sat in my driveway and was not backing out. Casey called my cell phone and said that Max was going to be going with me (not surprising: Casey's truck is a small, regular-cab one, and only comfortably seats two. So, I turned around and headed back.

On my way back I could see that two guys had confronted Max in my driveway and arrested him in the cul-de-sac. I pulled into the driveway and walked over to where Max and one of the guys (a plainclothes cop) were. The cop warned me to stay clear.

"How far away is clear?" I said.

"You'd best go back to your driveway."

So I did.

The other guy was Chris Boyett, son of a local, nasty judge and head of the drug task force. He's the guy that's been looking for Max for the last three weeks. During that time Max stayed at my place and at Crystal's, and this guy knew it. He questioned Casey and me about this. Warned me that, though I was on the bottom of his list of priorities, I could be responsible for housing a felon, or some such thing. Oh yeah,

"I know you use marijuana," he said.

I just continued to stare at him, saying nothing.

Well, they hauled Max off, and Casey and I delivered the lawn mower.

Yesterday afternoon I got a couple calls from Max and am helping him by making phone calls to let folks know what's going on.

Ok. That sucks enough, but I still haven't gotten to number two.

2) The night before, on Wednesday, 15 June, I got an email from Amy Eoff who'd found an obituary in The Eagle online for Gwen Edwards. She forwarded the obit to me an other theatre friends.

I know Gwen from when we did "Romeo and Juliet" at The Theatre Company. Gwen played a fantastic nurse! With her high voice, curly blonde hair and british accent, she made that role hers. I think I played Lord Montague, with Carolyn Cobb as Lady M. (We still call each other 'wife' and 'husband' whenever we see each other.) Gwen is such a bubbly and lovable character! Whenever I'd see her around town, she was always "up." We'd even talked about her starting voice lessons with me.

The last time I saw her was in the grocery store while Rob and I were shopping. We all chatted a bit, and then Rob went off to do more shopping while Gwen and I continued chatting. She had hoped that Rob was my boyfriend... . According to Gigi, Gwen wanted everyone to be blissfully hitched - it was her favorite thing.

Well, Gwen was only 48 years old, according to the obit. I will certainly miss her.

Her funeral is at 2 p.m. today at a funeral home and I've been wrestling with the decision of whether or not to go. Joe helped me this morning by reminding me that funerals are designed for the living. I remembered that I much prefer a memorial service to a funeral. I also thought back to Joe Folse's funeral (a prof who collaborated with the guys I worked with back in the Biosystems days) which was at a local funeral home. This place, Calloway-Jones funeral home, was a classic design for such a place from the '50s or '60s: dark, low, cheesy organ, depressing. I hated being there. When I think back now, I tend to remember that funeral rather than the other things about Prof. Folse. I really don't want to do that with Gwen.

I felt a big relief when I gave myself the permission not to go.

So, today while sitting here in my office, I'm in a funk, but thoughts of the future help to keep me going. Soon. Very soon. [In fact, there's another person looking at my house right now!]