Tuesday, April 17, 2007

What a world!

Yesterday was a tough day, and it just didn't get any better as the day went on.
I went to George's funeral yesterday morning. I dropped Gak off at work and then went to the viewing and service. I was there for Joan and the kids. Her two sisters and mom showed up too. There were some bitter things said by some of George's family, but not as many as Joan feared. Mel and Ant did very well. Ant was acting up and 'showing off' but that's how he handles stress. Mel was being clingy and gave herself the 'job' of introducing people. Again, this is how she handles stress. The service was nice. Mel (and Ant) sang along to a song for their Dad, and some people said some nice words. I did like George, at least mostly. I was never close to him, but he was a good enough person most of the time. I just think that Joan drove him nuts (she drives me nuts too) and they just weren't a good pair. I know he drove her nuts.
Mel and Ant both said some words about their Dad. When Ant went up, he was just barely taller than the podium. Joan lifted him up and he said something, I can't remember what, and mid-sentence broke down. My heart ached. He's only 6! I don't even want to imagine the pain of loosing a parent. Mel said how much her dad had been there for her all the time and how good he was. She was crying too. By this point, there wasn't a dry eye. It just hurt so much to see two young kids trying to deal with this big of a loss.
I was impressed with the new wife's one cousin though. She came up to Joan afterwords and said that even though she hadn't been mentioned by name she understood that she must be going through a huge loss as well and that she could tell Joan was a good and caring person... I think she's the only one that came up to Joan to offer support other than me and her sisters. (Kat couldn't come, migraine...)

Then I went to work. Or at least I went to my office. I fired up my computer as I ate Wendy's drive through. I opened my email, opened up the inter-office IM and started talking with a friend while the email downloaded. Then, suddenly mid sentence, my network connection drops.
AARGH!
I go downstairs to talk with my friend before dealing with my computer.
I then reboot and go through some other rigmarole. Oh, did I mention that they're changing domains on us as well? At any rate, it turns out that my laptop lost my network card. I have no idea what happened. I had two bluescreens last week and some major issues rebooting yesterday. It was about 3:00 by the time I figured out what needed to be done. I had to call the help desk to get them to send someone over. We had someone in the building that day, but he was backed up on the migration stuff. Therefore, no network connection, no work. AARGH!

Then I come home. I fix dinner and Gak tells me about the Virginia Tech shootings. Great. Just what I needed to hear after a long, stressful, unproductive day. One of my high school friends went to Tech. I think she even lived in the dorm where the first shooting happened. I'm not sure, it was quite a while ago now that I was down there. I hear people talking about why didn't they shut things down earlier/faster, how did this happen. I mean, this could have happened anywhere, a mall, any college campus, anywhere. I'm sure the administration did what they could with the information they had. You have to remember that hindsight is 20/20. You can only do so much with the info that you have. Did they do the best with the info they had? I don't know.

Well, I've rambled on long enough about the trying day I had yesterday (don't get me started about snow in April!). All the friends and families of VA Tech are in my thoughts. Mel, Ant and Joan are in my thoughts. I've got to get ready for work and see if I can't get anything accomplished. Peace to all and may you have calm days ahead of you.

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