tardy update
I see I haven’t updated in a week or so. It’s been a busy (and sad) one. My father passed away last Sunday and I went down last Wednesday to be with family, go to the funeral and try and put the house and other affairs in order.
I’m getting to be a pro at the drive between Denver and Tucson. I headed out reasonably early in the morning. Only problem on the road was in Denver. Lots of construction and traffic. Once that was past it was just 13.5 hours of driving along. The dogs have gotten used to the long car rides too, they just sleep and relax.
Kurt and Twyla were ready to go:
I sure hate these Russian thistles:
Saw some bison:
And tons of antelope. They were hard to take pictures of while driving:
Got in around 9:15pm MST. All my sisters and my brother were already there.
Thursday I didn’t sleep all that well (Merlin was sleeping on my feet for some reason). Got up early and managed to do some work. We do have high speed cable at the house there which was nice. My brothers and sisters all worked at setting up appointments for lawyers and accountants and calling people. We also went though a bunch of pictures of my dad and setup a slide show for the reception. Finally we worked a lot on what we should say at the service and everyone related stores of my dad.
In the afternoon we got a number of other visitors and we did a cookout for dinner with many many relatives and friends in attendance.
My dad’s house has a very nice gigantic window looking out on a bunch of bird feeders. My dad loved to sit and watch the birds:
There were a number of dogs in attendance:
Sisters:
My Brother:
Another sister:
Friday morning was the funeral. There was a graveside service at 10am, then a service at the local episcopal church at 10:30, followed by a reception. It was nice to see lots of family and friends I seldom see, but it would be better to see them under better conditions. The service was very nice and the reception was very organized. After the reception we all went back to my dads place and had lunch and visited some more.
Later in the afternoon all 5 of us siblings went and met with a estate lawyer that had been recommended to us from many sources. He was very nice and seemed good at explaining things. Hopefully he will be worth his fees.
Saturday we just relaxed around the house and tried to figure out estate issues. It’s amazing how complicated things like that can be.
For dinner we went out to a local mexican food place, it was not at all spicy, but very tasty.
We all scattered for our various homes on Sunday. We are planning on getting together again in October and dividing up property and so forth.
The 13.5 hour drive was about like always. Uneventfully until I got to Denver. Of course there was T-Rex to worry about and lots of very stupid drivers. I was amazed that at least 2 people managed to run over construction cones because they failed to see the GIGANTIC FLASHING SIGN telling them that the lane was going away and that they needed to merge over.
It’s sure good to be back home.