Don't Know Where To Begin

Too many funerals.  Too much going on.

Last Saturday was the funeral for the guy (a couple years younger than we are) who lived - until 4 years ago - across the street from us.  It was sudden.  A week before that was the funeral for a woman who a previous bishop had "assigned" me to be her friend.  Yesterday I was sitting with a friend waiting for another funeral to start when both our phones started getting lots of texts.  Our neighbor who lived a few houses south of us had suddenly passed while in Florida with his wife.  We have done things socially with them in the past.  He and his wife are only a few years younger than us. 

It'll be a funeral I must attend.  Much as I dislike funerals.  I don't do well with them and generally avoid them if I can. And yes, I've received a bit if negativity because I (more often than not) choose not to attend them. I'm getting better at not caring.  Marginally.  I figure at 72, I get to choose.  Right?

And I'm already feeling done with funerals.  Done with sadness.  Done with misery.

I've been trying for over a month to connect with our garage door company.  They've been great in the past.  I've left several messages on their voicemail and even one on their website.  Zero response.  So this morning I decided I was done with that.  Picked a top rated company off the internet, phoned them just before noon to see if they could come sometime and check things out with the garage door.  By 2:00 he had packed up the remnants of the job and driven away.  We have a new garage door opener.  Complete with a phone app, camera  - so we can see who is in the garage, physical openers to clip onto the visor and a new outside keypad. He was so fun to have do our work.  Right on top of things, patient with me while I tried to figure out the phone app (which I will likely never, ever use) and thorough. And was kind enough to compliment us on our door and the fact that this is a 22+ year old garage door opener.  The cost? Who knows if we got overcharged, or a reasonable price.  We're just glad it's done.

Was talking to our friend yesterday about the high cost of heating our homes.  They are similar in size, hers is a bit older. We had both just barely received our bills.  Ours was more than double her bill.  I've been wondering if our furnaces are kicking on a bit more than they should - using more gas.  So while I was calling the garage door people, I also called our furnace people.  It's scary that we have garage door people, furnace people (they're also the air conditioning people), and people for our feet, our teeth, our eyes, our cars, our roof.  You name it, we've got people for it.  The furnace people will be out next week to "tune up" the two furnaces. I even asked her if the guys will just say: because they're so old you need new ones. She actually chuckled and said no, they'd fix things up if they can.  I'm not anxious to spend another $10,000 on new furnaces.  I'd rather take a trip.

Our amaryllis is blooming. Such a fun gift.  I want all plants to be so free from fussing.  The wax encasing the bulb is kind of fun to see and you're really not supposed to water it. Wouldn't it be nice if there was just a tiny bit more of that kind of ease in life?  Sure, I wouldn't grow any then.  But sometimes it seems very enticing. 

We spent a couple hours this morning at the temple.  I needed that peaceful respite from the cares.  The session has changed a bit again.  At least in the last couple months since we were there last. Which meant I was pretty engrossed.  Also nice for me.

Today I'm thankful for a new garage door opener, that was installed quickly with a minimum of fuss and that I can somehow manage to pay for.  I'm grateful for people who are qualified to do things that I can't do.  Grateful for flowers that bloom in the winter.  And grateful for a piece of chocolate that will be thoroughly enjoyed.