Heres to you Uncle Joe

In diapers -- report cards
In spoke wheels -- in speeding tickets
In contracts -- dollars
In funerals -- in births
In -- five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you figure
A last year on earth?
-"Seasons Of Love B" by Jonathan Larson

My uncle Joseph died last Wednesday. He had turned eighty years old this past July, we had just moved to Ohio and Liam was just too young to go to New York to see him. I learned about his passing last Friday.

Other than my uncle Peter, uncle Joseph was one of the few uncles that I can actually say I had regularly talked with and got to know a little. My father was 9th of 10 children so my father's side of the family is huge. He lived around Toronto Canada with my aunt.

Sadly we never brought Liam to see Uncle Joseph when he was in New York for his eightieth birthday. When I heard from my mom that he had passed. The news hit me like a stack of bricks. This really reminded me of the mortality of my parents. I know that my grandmother lived to her eighties so I know that most of my family is fairly long lived but I hope my father will live long enough to see Liam and his siblings grow up and maybe marry and have children, so my dad who is now 65 will have to live to at least his 90's. I hope that he will be around that long.

To mourn my uncle's passing I have for every night until when he will be buried (November 29) I pour wine, burn inscents, and leave food as an offering for my uncle. I say a prayer for his passing. I do all this for my own peace of mind, mourning rituals to me is for the living, it gives people a time and a way to deal with the death that wait for us all. It gives us a way to transform the pain and loss into something else something less scary. Since I can't be there for his funeral I can at least do this to mourn him.

"To everything
(Turn, turn, turn)
There is a season
(Turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose
Under Heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep..."
"Turn Turn Turn (There is a season)" by Pete Seeger

We are all part of a cycle as some are born some must die. As I was overjoyed by the birth of Liam, I am sad for the passing of my uncle Joseph and I guess that is the way it has always been.

The Week that never ends!

Monday: November 1st

Day started pretty much ok not much done at work, caught up on paper work from my Friday off. Had a nice weekend with Sabrina and Eric when they visited this past weekend for Ahmie and My 5 year wedding anniversary.

Tuesday: November 2nd

Woke up at 8am and got dressed and ready to go vote. Got a phone call saying that the Medicaid Surveyor was at the house to do the annual inspection and asked me to come ASAP. So Ahmie and I went to our polling place and voted, unlike many other polling places around Cleveland our polling location had a short wait, 10 minutes or so when we were there voting. Got back home from voting and went to work.

Anxiously driving to work because the Surveyor comes once a year to inspect the operation of the house that I manage. If we don't do things "right" according to the standards set in the Medicaid standards I run the risk of being cited for deficiencies. Which requires action on my part to correct the deficiencies and so on. Plus my boss does not like the managers to have too many deficiencies from surveyors. The Medicaid surveyors have the right to pull funding from a place that they visit if there are too many problems seen. But this is only reserved for major problems, or not correcting problems identified.

I was anxious because we have not started preparing for the survey, I was hoping that we would start this week to prepare for this. I was about half way to work when I noticed that my car was running very hot as in line beyond the red in the temperature gauge. So I stopped the car at the first parking lot I could and looked under the hood. Some steam came out and I did not see anything out of place. So I let the car cool for 10-15 minutes and started the car again. This time the car heated up very quickly again. I was thinking "great', exactly what I need on the day of my first Medicaid survey. So I stopped at the first strip mall I found and called Ahmie about the problem. Then I called my boss Jessie and he said that he would pick me up. When I got there at about 11am, everything was pretty settled, the surveyor was going through the books. Ahmie and her mom were helping me with the car. Cindy was driving the car to Polaris Career Center to get it looked at.

Through the afternoon it went pretty well, another surveyor came and did an inspection of the facility. I got cited on a facility issue which is beyond my control, so I am not so worried. The other surveyor stayed and observed dinner and had some suggestions for the staff. Ahmie picked me up at 7.

But before that I was "initated" by Floyd who was an employee of mine. The staff have been talking about giving me an "imitation" for a week or two, so I knew it was coming. I got shaving creamed. Yes it was a little embarrassing, but I think the staff will have something interesting to talk about. I think little things like that strengthen work morale. (picture to post soon).

Coming home I took our old car (92 Saturn) home. We had given the car to our friend Libby and her daughter Katie. However neither Libby nor Katie took care of the car and in the end they did not want it. So Cindy and I took the car back Monday night.
When we got home we were glued to the election coverage. I stayed up past midnight knowing that we had little chance of having a Shrub free presidency for the next four years.

Wednesday: November 3rd
Woke up at 4 am to go to work. Rolled into work at 5 to be there for the Surveyor for her observations. For the most part the rest of the day was uneventful from the Survey. We had the exit interview at about 3 pm and I did not get any citations! Yes! After the exit interview I went home.

Ahmie had the bush blues after hearing Kerry's concession speech and was enraged that her mom voted for the Shrub. She was enraged because the whole reason that swayed Cindy's vote was a political cartoon of Kerry.

Ok enough for this post!