Overall it was a tough but good day. Actually I had a much tougher day yesterday.
I had a very nice lunch with Jeanne and Rob at McKenzie River Pizza. The waitress was nice enough to snap a photo for us. Jennifer liked to go there for Birthday lunches. We have had a few interesting visits over the years there. On one of Jeanne's Birthday the power went out on us and we had to postpone lunch. I had the rod and reel lunch special (she liked that), but I did not have the pizza (I knew we were having Pizza for dinner) had the half a Reuben with soup. They had a Buffalo Chicken Chowder as the soup special, so I said what the hell I will give that a try. Boy I am glad I did. It was delicious.
Jennifer's cousin Marran has finished the majority of the Teddy Bears from Jennifer's wedding dress so I was able to give Jeanne hers today (which meant a lot to me). Marran did a great job on these she has a few more to finish, but the ones she has finished are great. It is always nice to have talented relatives. My photo's don't really do them justice but gives you a idea of what they look like.
We missed the eclipse because we were still in lunch. Mom and Dad said they did get a quick glimpse of it as the clouds parted just enough for them to see it. I had brought up a couple of welding helmets up to the house before I left so they could view it safely.
After lunch, I went out to the cemetery to have a visit with her. I stopped and bought some roses to put on her grave. I will be honest all I could hear her saying is "God Damn It Joe, why are you wasting money on flowers". She was not a big fan of flowers (she thought they were a waste of money) but I felt I had to do a little something to mark her Birthday. They were a mix of red, pink and white roses.
While I was unwrapping them to put them out, it was pretty breezy and some of the leaves were blowing off them. This reminded me of a "flower incident" that we had while we were living in Houston.
One morning we got a call from our security company saying that our security system motion detector had gone off and that the police were being dispatched to the house. I immediately took off for the house (we were at least 40 minutes away, depending on traffic). Thankfully I was going against the traffic and I made it in about 30 minutes, the cops had already come and gone, they found nothing amiss and no sign of entry into the house. Anyway I got home and went in the house. The only thing I could find that would have possibly set the motion alarm off was some roses that Jennifer had gotten (I think for her Birthday). The roses had lost a couple of petals and we had placed them on the living room fireplace mantel which was right under the motion sensor, so that was the only thing we could think of that set it off. Either way it was a major pain in the ass that day. I had to then drive back into work, because Jennifer was going to need a ride home. After that we were very conscious on where we put flowers. So remembering that put a smile on my face and I asked her if she remembered that and I could hear her laughing about in my head. Not quite as exciting as the bird incident, but one we did relive over the years.
Then I went and ran some errands, the main one was picking up a Pappa Murphy's pizza for dinner. Pizza was one of Jennifer's favorite meals. She ate it on every continent that we visited over the years. Her favorite was Candian Bacon with Black olives, but she would eat others, however she was known to scrape off things she did not like (mushrooms in particular). She claimed she did not like those because it was a texture issue. I got the Rancher for tonight because it had Canadian Bacon on it.
Tonight we will have the pizza and watch the Championship basketball game and see if the winner is Leela or Mike in the family bracket challenge. I am pulling for Purdue at this point. I had North Carolina winning it, so don't have a dog in the hunt. I just hate seeing repeat champions. I do really appreciate all the folks who participated, it would have meant a lot to her as well.
Well enough therapy for today! Happy Birthday Jen, hope you are having a good first one in Heaven. Love you with all my heart.
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