Goodbye Mom

Here’s a picture of my Mom in good times. She past away last month after a long decline. May 14, 1929 – August 24, 2012. It was definitely time. I never do this end of life stuff well- dogs, people, close relatives, fish – its all hard.  It was a relief to know it was over and quite and peaceful at the end. Chris and I headed out to Seattle for the funeral.

It would have been an Irish Wake, but my Mom being British surely wouldn’t have approved. I didn’t have a lot to say to Mom while we were out for the funeral, but I did show her my pony tail and wished her a good trip. Here we are at my sister Liz’s house. It was good to catch up with family. Plus we got to inspect Ron, Liz’s husband. This was the first time we’ve met him. He passed inspection with flying colors.

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming WOW, WHAT A RIDE!"

We didn’t get to catch up with too many friends while we were on the Left Coast – sometimes life is just a little too busy. Had a great lunch with our blog reader John and his wife Lee in Richmond Beach. Got to spend some time with my old friend Steve and his girlfriend Dianne. Above is the results. Steve has a great wood workshop. The wood above is the stack of parts that will be the hanging, oversink dish rack on Georgia once it gets assembled and painted. You can see the TSA notice they left in the package. I guess they thought this was suspicious with possible terrorist potential.
We spent a fun day up in Bellingham with our daughter Meghan and her boyfriend Tyler. I got to talk techie stuff with Tyler. But the highlight was the fresh caught, BBQ’d salmon Meghan put together.

We even got in a tourist trip to the Pike Place Market. I had to air brush in the blue sky, ‘cause everyone knows it always rains in Seattle

Looking for back-to-school supplies in the Market

After a week in Seattle we headed down to San Diego (Carlsbad) so Chris could visit her parents and I could put in a cameo appearance. Here’s the family crowd having a fun lunch at the Fish Market in Del Mar.

We had a good dinner with our friends Ken and Di on their patio on the cliff face overlooking the Del Mar beach . Di forced JoAnn, Jessie, Lee and Terri to come over too. It was great to catch up with them all.

We got a chance to visit with our friends Seung and Zhara and get in a little twins play time.

I’m back in Virginia working on the boat(s). Chris comes back on Tuesday.

Mimi and Peter, AKA Mom and Dad, at the piano on the ship Queen Elizabeth in 1956. Kind of odd, as neither one could play the piano.

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Paul