10 Busy Days

Life has been interesting the last ten days since I posted. I will try to itemize it here in mini stories...hopefully you find it interesting.

1. I've been getting the memorial service together. It has taken a great deal of coordination to get all the players in place. My good friend and talented musician/songwriter Mollie Ziegler will be leading music during the service. This is a special treat for me as my mom liked Mollie very much. Click her link to go to her Myspace page which has a few tracks from the New-Agey grooves of her album Seeker.
   
2. A fabulous speaker and pastor Jim Shiner is coming from Ocean Shores, WA to officiate the memorial service. I went to a service years back for a friend whose baby had died and Jim performed what I thought was the most touching and comforting service imaginable. Jim is a good friend and was my mom's choice for her service.
   
3. Three days ago I was cleaning my garage and my mom's walker was there glaring at me. I prayed ever so briefly that I'd find a meaningful place to donate this walker so it would get to someone who needed it. The next day I was walking out of my new awesome neighborhood pancake restaurant and saw a man who needed a great deal of assistance walking and had his younger and more agile wife was helping him. I asked him if he used a walker and he had one at home but it was hard to put in the car and they said that what they really needed was one that they could take with them to outings and appointments. The wife was smaller than the husband by quite a bit and she was concerned that she wouldn't be able to keep him from falling. I told them I lived just 3 minutes away and I'd get them that exact walker they needed. They were grateful and obviously I wouldn't let them pay me. The woman's son owns one of the best doughnut places in our area and she wrote a note to her son for me to present to get a free dozen doughnuts! Three cheers for bartering and voluntary association baby!
   
4. I was called in for jury duty. My verdict: The cop did it.
   
5. My cousin Don has been such a blessing to me. We don't get together often enough for sure but I never feel out of sync with him. I was a five year old snot-nosed ring bearer in his wedding so many years ago.
   
6. I've been riding motorcycles 23 years without an endorsement on my license. Some people call it riding illegally but I just like to think of myself as an undocumented motorsports enthusiast. This week I took the advanced riders class (one day knowledge and skills class) and finished tops in the class. Seriously.
   
7. At the DMV I had a long conversation with a guy from Ethiopia who has lived here four months and is just learning English. He was exposed to English some at the university back in Africa but has only been speaking it for four months. I was able to carry on a longer conversation with him than I'm able to with many people who cobble together some kind of English and live here their whole lives.
   
8. I had to cancel a vacation that we had planned a few months back. I haven't had a meaningful vacation to anywhere in years. This is seriously driving me nuts.
   
9. Spotify has been a dream come true for me. If you don't have it then you're really just wandering through life like an idiot. Why are you doing this to yourself? If you don't have it, click the link, put in your email and wait for the invite. Install it and then listen to any music you want for free (LEGALLY!) until you puke. Wipe your face, get a breath mint and then email me a kind thank you.

Well, thanks for waiting patiently for 10 days while I got some stuff together. I'll be dedicating some posts to my mom coming up and rooting for Ron Paul in the Iowa Straw Poll tomorrow.