THE ANGELS ARE CRYING

If I believe what I was told when I was younger, then the angels are super sad right now!  It is pouring here!  The sump pump (a basin in the floor of the basement used to capture water so the basement doesn't flood) is active once again!  Some thunder, no real lightning, but our area is under a tornado watch.  So much has happened in the last six days (they have been saving up to have one big cry, I suppose--a culmination of the weekly events), and while I don't think I can even draw a parallel to Panama with any of it,  it has been a sad, sad week.  Just now Massachusetts officials have re-opened mass transit and have withdrawn the "lock down" in Watertown due to the terrorist bomber that is still on the loose.  Where is he!  Then there was the fertilizer explosion that occurred two nights ago near Waco, Texas (many people still missing with 12 dead), but that story has been lost among the all day coverage of the Boston shoot out and lock down.  No matter political views, I am not sure why no one is discussing the fact that the drive for increased gun control reform was blocked by the Senate this week.  At some point, past political disagreements always come into discussion when there has been a national tragedy.  This was another disturbingly sad event (to many but not all Americans) that happened this week.  I will leave that topic alone.

And then before all of  this happened, I attended the funeral of Ray's grandmother.  The recent tragic events have brought the nation together once more, and funerals certainly do the same thing with families.  Ray and I drove to Tazewell, Virginia on Sunday.  We stopped three times on the way.  The drive is approximately six or less hours depending on stops along the way (perhaps you would want to visit the Natural Bridge?), weather, speed, road conditions, traffic and more.  Our first stop was at McDonald's for bathroom break and breakfast.  I haven't been to a McDonald's in forever, or since our breakfast in Coronado, Panama that is.  This time I had a yogurt parfait.  Tiny but delicious!  I was saving up for a big lunch or some country cookin' for dinner!  We made our way to Bluefield, which is in West Virginia and Virginia for lunch at a Subway, and there was a rest area stop along the way. I think I can safely say I was in Virginia, since I was right next door to Bluefield College which is in Virginia (I had to look it up).  What I forgot to look up or take a picture of was a large, white sign that stated there is a "Big Sign Project" going on there.  Wish I knew what that was about--I really do need to get more of an exciting life here!  Best part of the drive was that the convertible top was down!  Sunny and gorgeous all day.  And Ray had us listening to my Ipod (big smile here)!  We arrived to Ray's mom's house at around 1:30.  Her house is the "go to" house.  Everyone goes to Cora's house (or Mamaw's house).  I counted at one point in time 14 people inside her family room/kitchen area (about 18 x 12 ft) with eight or more relatives and friends outside.  No need to go into details about a funeral or the events that transpired over the 24 hours we were there (oh, there was an awesome dinner made by the next door neighbor of chicken and dumplings!), but I will say that I now know what I am going to do once in Panama.  I told everyone there that I will change names so no one can come after me for money, and I will write a book about Ray's family in Tazewell!  It will keep me busy for a good while.  The family tree is crazy.  I learned today that there is a smartphone app in Iceland where a person can "bump" phones to make sure they aren't related to each other to prevent "kissing cousin syndrome" (since so many people in the country of 320,000 are distantly related to each other in Iceland).  I think they need to market this app in Tazewell, too.  Just sayin'.  I  learn and discover a few additional things about the family when visiting with Ray's mom.  This trip just added to the collection of stories I can tell my daughter and write about in my book. And while listening to the Pastor during the service (I heard about 20% of it since we sat in the very back--on purpose though behind Ray's wonderful aunt and uncle), I did take away two things that he said to us (and had Ray fill me in on what I missed on the drive home). The first is that death is like a graduation from high school or college of sorts.  You flip your tassel to the other side and celebrate moving forward with everyone being happy for you and in a celebratory mood--go ahead and mourn the death of a loved one for a short period of time but then start a celebration and know that that loved one has now moved on to another chapter filled with great happiness and pleasure.  I am not an overly deeply religious person, but I really like this thought. The second is that "life is uncertain, but death is not".  So true, and this is again why I am going to live it to its fullest with us going to Panama soon.  Let living be uncertain.  It does scare me a bit.  It makes me nervous.  But this is what life is about---the unknown.  Who knew that one week ago I would be going to a funeral in a few short days, or there would be bombs set off at the Boston Marathon or that two days later a fertilizer plant would explode.  We can't predict life.  We just have to live it the best we can and play the cards we are dealt the best way we know.
Okay, so somehow Grandma Bessie Mae's funeral did end up relating to Panama somehow.  Now to come up with a title for that book.

(The second suspect at 7:30 pm has been found hiding in a covered up boat in someone's backyard in Watertown, MA--authorities are moving in to capture him, but he may have explosives attached to him).