the #$(%*% day....

Just a short update on the crappiest Monday I've had in a very long time. J's funeral is tomorrow in his hometown, a small farm town just outside of Green Bay. Right now, there are eleven of us who are planning to make the two-hour drive over there. We have scrambled to cover our jobs, to make shift swaps; and the company has stretched the overtime rules and reassigned people so that we are able to do this. J always commented that he wondered how many years it would be before he felt like this small town was home. I understood that feeling--even after 25 years here, there are many times I still feel like an outsider of sorts. I wonder if he realized just how many of us thought of him as a friend. I wonder if he would have thought of this as "home" now. UPDATE: What on earth would compell a pastor to tell a grieving family and friends that "sometimes we need 'little reminders' that life is short"? Little REMINDERS???? I wanted to get up and swat that man after he made that remark. The thing that stopped me was the thought that somewhere out there, a red-headed "little reminder" named J was laughing his @$$ off. He would have loved it.