Best laid plans

After working 15 hour days, 7 days a week since January 2nd, I was really looking forward to some time off this week. Typically, I try not to do anything strenuous and mainly just catch up on some sleep, especially since my birthday is this week.

To say that a restful week isn’t happening would be an understatement.

Thinking it was going to rain Sunday, I spent Saturday afternoon working in the yard. Probably not a good idea after sitting in a chair for four months but hey – can’t have an outdoor party without the yard being in shape.

Late Saturday evening, I got an email asking me if I wanted to attend a Hillary Clinton event in Washington. After thinking about it for all of about 30 seconds – after all, I was being invited to sit at a table with one of the superdelegates – I said yes.

Sunday afternoon, as I was nursing my aches and blisters, we got a phone call from the nursing home where my partner’s mother has lived for the last 2 1/2 years. Yeah – that call. By the time my partner arrived, her mother had died. At 92, she had lived a full life. Even so, the call was quite unexpected. The rest of the day was a bit of a whirlwind.

Although I attended Warner’s kickoff Monday, as you can probably tell from my posting, my heart wasn’t in it. Monday afternoon was spent at the funeral home, getting the final arrangements made, writing the obituary and so forth. Some of this work had, thankfully, been done in advance. Nevertheless, when someone lives to be 92, just counting up all the offspring requires effort.

We had planned to sleep in today, our trip to the cemetary delayed until this afternoon. But phone calls awakened us fairly early and are just now letting up. Neighbors are stopping by to offer condolences. And I’m trying to get invitations for the party done and make arrangements for daylong trek to and from DC tomorrow. The funeral is Thursday.

So sleep will have to wait until Friday. Talk about a week of highs and lows.