Goodbye EJS

This has been a very emotional week. Tuesday is when we got the call that Gak's uncle had passed. We knew it was coming. It was still a little sudden. Everyone thought he was fighting it a bit and would have another couple of months.
Our travels here were fairly uneventful. The most interesting part was why our flight was delayed leaving out of Philly. Essentially the keys got locked in the car. Ok. Here's the deal as best as I understand. The security door between the cabin and cockpit has an electronic lock. The only way to reset the lock is from inside the cockpit. Well, the plane had been parked overnight and something happened to the power and the lock locked. Therefore, they had to find an alternate route into the cockpit, restore power and unlock the lock. This was quite comic in some respects. It only cost us about a 15 minute delay. The rest of the trip was uneventful and took a total of about 12 hours from the time we left my paernts'.
Yesterday was the funeral. Gak had been saying that he was OK and that he'd made his peace a few weeks ago when we thought his uncle wasn't going to make it. Well, it hit him pretty hard when we went to the funeral home Wednesday night. Gak was also a Paul Bearer yesterday (where in the world did that term come from anyhow?). The service and burial were very nice. They were a celebration of his life, which is good. I only met him once or twice, but he seemed to be a good man. It is very draining to filter everyone elses emotions. There was so much grief and sorrow. Actually, who I feel the most for is Uncle's two children and their families. They lost both their mother and father in about a two year span. The youngest is about 26 and I'm not sure how old the other is. The son is expecting a son of his own any day now.
The house has been full of people which is both good and bad. It is good for Gak's mom since he was her little brother (he was only 52 years old!) and she needs the support. It's a little rough for me since I pick up on everyone elses emotions pretty easily. Like I said, it's a bit draining to hold back other people's grief.
Today is a down-time day. Gak's mom is taking a friend to the city for a Dr. appointment and Gak and I are just going to hang around the house with his dad. Should be interesting. Tomorrow we're going up to Norman with a friend we didn't get to see much of last month when we were here. It should be a good visit.
Well, I'm going to get off of here now. I've rambled on enough and I'm sure it doesn't make a lot of sense. I just wanted to let everyone know how things are going. Peace to all and may you have close friends and dear family in your lives.