Saying Goodbye To Norman

Now December 15 and I got started around 4 AM on my big quote.  This is the umpteenth version, constructed to look professional and e mailable in Word, my least favorite piece of software.  This is in Word, has crashed too many times to be comfortable around and is persistent in telling me in many cases how I should spell, capitalize etc.  thereby infringing on my rights as I see it. 

Finishing around 10 am Van and I went to Uncle Norman’s funeral.  Frequent urination and painful urges have been plaguing me the last few days, being worse at some times than others.  Of course the worse is when we need to be the best.  As we drove across the county the creeping discomfort hovered close to me.  When we finally made it to the edge of town and the church I asked Van urgently to turn right into a parking lot of a greasy spoon across the highway.  There was no panic, just smooth response.  She turned the Pontiac into the lot at the far end, I got the truckers bomb out of the back seat and she got the modesty cover, both of which I had placed in easy reach before leaving home.  In a repeat of my March through May experience my pants were down, Admiral Winkie was out and I was peeing in the car in controlled and joyous fashion.  We were so practiced at it that it was routine.  I apologized but Vanessa assured me it was OK.  I was glad it was, because I felt a hell of a lot better when I was done.

I got up twice during the funeral but parked myself in front of the door closest the comfort station.  A staff member was at that door seeming to understand there would be in and out traffic, he kept it only slightly opened so we who cannot hold our water were not banging and slamming the door to get our job done. By mid afternoon the urgency and pain abated with the aid of the 3 pain pills taken since midnight. 

I was given his name as my middle name and Norman was used to torment me through my early school daze.  I remember as a small child he bought a new Pontiac Bonneville every year.  He would come by to show it to Dad and a couple of times we all piled in for ice cream.  I looked forward to these annual visits.  I loved the smell of the new car and studied it’s lines and chrome.  Every Christmas for many years we had the family party at his house.  I remember how he beamed when his new family room addition was done. My cousins have been very supportive and are fans of the journal and my frequent letters to the editor.  It was good that I could be there with Vanessa as we said good bye to their Dad with them.  

Already it is past mid December.  The days are a daze.  Life goes on.