happy 10

jbpinecone
Originally uploaded by unclebp

this picture was taken just outside pay 'n take (our favorite bar in flagstaff) on new years eve, 2010. seemingly just above our heads you can behold the flagstaff new years pine cone. there are lots of lights on it...and they dropped it down to street level during the countdown. this being our last year in flag, we needed to see this at least once. the biggest problem was the temperature...about 13 degrees. we went outside at about 11:50, and once the countdown was over...10 was here...and we headed back inside for more celebration!

about 6 hours later, my last living grandparent (grandmother to be exact) passed away in monroe, la. viva was born in 1919, and lived 90 years (give or take). 'memaw' (some say 'mee-maw, some say 'meh-maw...not sure who's right) had been close to death several times in the past 5 years...so it was hard for me to believe she was gone. i didn't get the message until 10am or so the next day and then we scrambled to find a plan to get down to monroe for the funeral.

we ended driving from flagstaff to monroe (spending 40 plus hours driving and 34 hours actually in louisiana), a crazy idea but much cheaper than flying. the whole family was there, and that doesn't really happen anymore. come to say goodbye to the unquestioned head of my mother's side of the family.

my biggest memories of memah are from the early '80's. our family was living in new orleans, and we often made the 4 hour drive to visit memaw, aunt linda, james, and debbie up in monroe. we spent lots of summertime there, and i also remember katie and i staying at memaws house for weekends during the school year (to give mom and dad some alone time).

we weren't really close. she was a very forceful person...with a very certain idea of what you should do with your life. during her later years she mellowed out a bit. but i never really had a chance to know her.

the one thing memaw and i shared was a love for the saints. we watched many games together in her bedroom (which was the living room of her house) and often when we spoke on the phone, the saints came up in our conversation.

maybe the saddest part of memaw's dying for me is she missed the saints being in the superbowl by 4 weeks. i know she would laugh now if she could see...and we would ponder the way the saints would blow the game against the colts. we both loved the saints...and i loved her.

sneaux!

the snow we've been waiting for has finally arrived. all week at work, we've been hearing about the major downpour coming thursday and friday. well, wednesday night dumped about a foot on us...and it's been coming down all day today with no signs of letting up. supposedly tomorrow and saturday will be full up as well. can't wait to see what that looks like.

seriously this is a bit too much for me. being from the south, my idea of "sneaux" is a dusting on the corner of a roof on the absolute coldest day of the year. so when i go outside, i have to bundle up with 8 different layers of goretex, fleece, wool, and a sense of adventure.

here you can see the path i dug to take out the trash today...as well as the general whitening of every surface in sight. at least jenny has no school, and i'm off of work. so, i guess, bring it on!