Funeral Homes You reach a point in your life when you realize a few things:
1. You hate funeral homes 2. You realize that as you get older, your attendance of funerals will increase and not decrease
sad Mrs. Robot's grandpappy passed away on Christmas Eve. The day after Christmas we were sitting in a funeral home in new or borrowed funeral finery greeting her relatives and family friends while her poor grandfather lay in a coffin a few feet away.
It's odd how casual the whole affair became as the time went on. I mean, the first 20 minutes were painful when the family walked in for the viewing. There is nothing more heartbreaking than seeing a grandmother crying and bending down to kiss her husband for the last time. Heartbreaking, and I am only related to these folks via marriage and barely knew grandfather.
But, an hour later it was almost a wedding reception, as folks came in that hadn't been seen for decades. Many folks hadn't seen Mrs. Robot since she was this tall (about waist high). I would be shaking hands with people and being introduced to them - but catching a few glimpses of the deceased every few minutes. Totally strange.
Think'n You have a lot of time to think about life, live, religion, and death during these funeral things. My brain has been swirling around a lot regarding religion. The other day I was having all these furious ideas and theories about religion in my head and then found myself coming right back to square one. Circular.
If a = b and b=c and c=d.... oh, and then d=a
D'oh!
I have lots of cranky ideas that I will try to get down on paper (i.e. my always crashing Microsoft Werd).
Loot As a god-fearing American, I raked in the good loot this year during the "celebrate Jeebus" holiday. I got some really awesome stuff this year, including, yes, a meat thermometer. Got one of those rabbit corkscrew things. A great wine book by the couple that does the wonderful wine column in the WSJ and a really excellent cocktail book. The first season of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast on DeeVeeDee, and, by far, my new favorite sweater (it's a wool zippy number).
Even the cat got some great gifts... kudos to my parents who got her this feather toy that she about goes ape over and for the little cat bed that she actually likes. Amazing. Whenever we try to buy her something, we usually have a 50/50 chance of her just hating and ignoring it - but my parents swoop in and score big points with the El Robot Cat.
Mrs. Robot got an iPod from Santa which I have enjoyed setting up for her. Hope she likes it.
2004 First, I can't believe it's about to be 2004. How did this happen? Second, I suppose we should do a robot review of 2003. If there were any posts by any of our writers that you thought just rocked the house, hit the contact page and let me know. I'll try to make up a list again this year.
2003 And lastly, if I can be serious for a moment (lights dim - someone taps their wine glass with their fork). 2003 was great fun, again, on the robot. I have enjoyed it all. Everyone deserves a pat on the back.
Speaking of Pat Pat, I wish you safe passage to Iraq and even safer package back home. Drop us a line if you can.
