This sure is turning out to be a wild week.  Sunday night was the news of Bin Laden's death.  Rain and colder weather was the big thing here on Monday.  Tuesday will be remembered as the day I got a call on the death of my classmate.  It was also the first of what will be several trips back home since I returned on Wednesday.  More about all of that in a moment.  Today served as a catching up day on house stuff along with the usual dad duties.  At least we all have clean clothes now for the next few days.  Life really can hum along for awhile only to be interrupted by periods of excitement.  I actually told someone on Sunday that this was going to be my quiet week before things got hectic in the next.  Remind me to never say that ever again. 

Tomorrow looks like another trip up north to attend funeral visitation.  Several of my friends and classmates are going to be there.  I was going to miss this event but now my thinking is it can be a good experience.  No doubt but there will be more than a few I haven't seen in years.  Linden is not really far from me so it is a fairly easy drive.  My hometown is depressing for me when traveling through.  Growing up there was such a great experience.  We lived in a bustling small town if you can call it that.  Most of the stores on the square are now boarded up and empty.  I remember walking those streets as people went in and out of those places to buy clothes, groceries and such.  My school is now far smaller than when we attended.  Our class had about 80 graduates back in 1979.  My guess is that is not quite twice the size of now.  Some of my friends still used party lines with the phone system.  So much changed over the years since I left.  But my departure probably did not cause the current condition.

My brain is still racing over what to say on Saturday.  Don't know if I mentioned here that I am one of the speakers.  This is a huge honor for me.  Let me also say that I think this will be about the most important set of funeral comments in my career.  Never have I spoken to so many people who are life long friends.  My friend was a huge part of our lives as a class.  We reconnected a few years ago through one of our reunions.  Our paths continued to cross at other gatherings there at home as well as other occasions.  I am beyond grateful for this.  Emotions are sure to play a part during the memorial.  I cannot tell you yet what form that will take.  My feelings took over during a funeral many years ago.  It was for a close church friend whose very young daughter died.  My goal is to handle this one much better. 

Not sure if there will be another blog post until Sunday.  Maybe there will be a very short one or two along the way.  I do know that my hope is the few days left in this week will be boring in comparison to the first few days.

Bro. Trey