Thanks, Havasu. I know he would drop everything and come help if I needed it-- he's just that kind of friend. He's had a rough time the last few years though.
I'm lazy so I'm copying and pasting from my post on the plumbingforums.
Funeral was rough. I hate funerals and I also can't stand country music. Other things, it makes me sad when other people cry-- it makes me cry, and I'm not one for religious ceremonies/sermons. So, there I was sitting in a chapel at a funeral, surrounded by people crying, while they played preachy religious country music. My inner Grumpy Cat had quite the monologue.
It was really heart wrenching when the 5-year-old was brought up to the open casket (Oh yeah, open casket is another one of the things that bugs me-- I want to remember the people when they were alive and can't look at the bodies). She put her favorite My Little Pony toy in the casket with him and said "I wish he could come back to life". That made her great grandmother start crying again. Poor woman wailed and sobbed-- which set off several other family members (hard to keep it together when she's wailing "My baby!" over and over)-- I went through half a container of tissues. My friend's mother held the girl through most of the funeral but at one point when my friend's grandmother started sobbing and my friend started crying, the little girl wanted to go to my friend. She hugged him and cried on his shoulder and then sat back and put her hands on his face and was wiping the tears away. There wasn't room on the front family bench for my friend's girlfriend, so she was seated with me. She kept leaning on me so I held her. I rubbed her back when she doubled over crying, and I did my best to try to comfort her. Poor kid never lost anyone close before so it's tough for her. It also made her cry when she saw her boyfriend cry.
I was slightly bothered that they spent less than 2 minutes talking about the deceased and instead spent most of the time telling everyone they were going to hell if they didn't believe in Jesus-- for almost an hour. None of the family got up to speak about him either-- probably because they were not prepared for it. He was only 46. There are a lot of humorous stories about him that would have been nice if they'd been shared. And of course, nobody was going to mention his struggles with drugs. I don't know if the preachers knew about that part. I did almost chuckle when they described him as "gentle". I mean, he was a really nice guy (aside from the drug thing) but he was also known for busting heads and breaking arms if people crossed him or his family. Someone tried to steal the radio out of my friend's truck, he told his father, and his father intercepted the guy and broke his arm. Before the funeral, my friend told me that one day someone hit his father in the back with a tire iron and his father just turned around, looked at the guy and said "Did you just hit me with a tire iron?" and the guy dropped it and ran like hell. He was a tough guy but he was a big softie when it came to his granddaughter. She was his little princess.
On the way over to the cemetery, other vehicles going the opposite direction were pulling over and stopping (I've been told that is a tradition to show respect that I'd never heard of before-- my mother had never seen it before and was surprised).
Saw a friend that I hadn't seen since his grandmother's funeral (and the last time before that was at his grandfather's funeral) so I said "We have to stop meeting like this!" I hope to see him again soon but under better circumstances. Actually, maybe the last time was at our 89-year-old friend's funeral- last 3 times were funerals. He and one of the pallbearers had to help my friend's grandfather stand up and reach his walker. Also helped my mother get out of her chair.
My friend's grandmother invited my mother to come over and visit for coffee. She wants to spend more time with her since she was also a mutual friend of our aforementioned 89-year-old friend who passed. I'm hoping she'll take her up on the offer because she needs to get out of the house more.
The grandmother gave me a really big hug and thanked me for being there for her grandson and asked me to never leave him and to please always be there for him. He's a good kid so I intend to do so. I let him know that he can call me anytime of the day or night if he needs something-- even just to talk to someone.
Meanwhile, I need to work on more cleaning in the house. I was exhausted after the funeral. I'm really hoping that doubling my thyroid meds will help give me more energy-- although I think this was partially from being emotionally drained (and from being up most of the night working on my mother's laundry).
Time to go give ear mite medicine to 14 kitties. At least I have goggles so it won't get in my eyes when they shake their heads. LOL.
Anyway, I got that in this afternoon and four 15 1/2" "joists" between the original and the new one on the outside wall. It's 12 feet in length so I will add the rest of the short "joist" sections tomorrow and fit in the new plywood. 
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