UPdate for today: I went to the house, but didnt' get any shed work done. I startted to, and then the dumpster guy arrived and dropped it off--he was very precise in dropping it in place, very careful, and I let him know I appreciated that. --he barely had inches on any side to place it between the grave and trees and the fence/gate, and still put it rigth where it should go.
After taht I got distracted by memories and the unstoppable desire to find a few more things in the house. I managed to restrict myself to the old bedroom, the back room and kitchen, since I am supposed to leave the front room, bedroom, hall, and bathroom alone till they can clean them out, but it was very hard. I wanted to pull DayGlo Avenger out of there, and the ebike stuff and powerchair and whatnot, but I'd have to do a lot of digging thru debris to do it.
So i dug around and got some more basic tools and bike specific tools out. Got the welder stuff in one place so once power is there I can weld shelves and fix fences and fix the broken seat on CrazyBike2, etc.
I also found some old stuff of the dogs and things I kept stored in the kitchen drawer of dog stuff, like Hachi's pink paw protectors, Loki's original collar, etc., and put those out on the grave memorial, along with the framed printout of the group shot above. When I put that on there, though, I realized that they are buried almost reverse of that picture, except that Hachi and Nana are buried together in a "hug". So I may print a new version that is mirrored just so people seeing it might know which memorial stuff is for which dog, as I have it laid out the order they are buried in.
No new pictures today, nothing really looks different than yesterday. I had to leave just before 11am so I could go meet with Rachel, my boss at work, to pick up some of the donations from coworkers (including some people from other stores!). Even though she is on vacation she came all the way up to meet with me there, and listen to me as I babbled on about stuff. And then she asked about my helmet; if it was ok, and when I said my half-helmet is fine but my FF that I only use in real cold and/or rain is smoke damaged and probably can't be worn again, she setup a meetup with me Wed at a gear shop close to me to take a look at getting a new one. She is completely awesome; I have never had any coworkers like the ones I have now, except for Bill (who I used to work with at CompUSA) and Michael, someone I've known even longer than Bill, but I haven't mentioned here before I think but who I will meetup with later this week, who I keep losing touch with (my own fault) but keep re-finding again (usually when he gets in touch with me).
I also gave Rachel the "free food" coupon I'd gotten a few weeks back, because I am not going to need it before it expires in June, and someone who does need dog food right now should get it, so she will find a good home for it.
I also was approached by the guard at the bank as I rode up on Delta Tripper, with a load of grungy-looking smoke-damaged boxes on the trailer and my bags strapped on the top of the rack, wearing my front-pack doggy carrier with the stuffed puppy toy, and parked. For a moment I thought he might have thought I was some homeless bum and was going to shoo me away, but he actually has seen me riding past for a long time and always wanted to talk to me about the bikes!
So we conversed a bit before Rachel came up to meet me, and then again for quite a while afterward, in between his other duties, before I had to leave to go back to Bill's. He'd like to build an ebike, but needs help doing it. So I advised him to come here to ES and sign up, then start a thread about what he wants to do, so we can all help him, since I don't think I'll have enough time to really help him out right, not anytime soon. Hopefully he does come here so we can help. I'll try to remind him next time I am there picking up funds for fixing stuff up and whatnot.
In other news, I spoke with my dad for the first time in years last night, and it was both frustrating and cathartic; I'd guess we talked for more than a couple of hours before I started to doze off while talking. I just wish I hadn't been so exhausted at the time (unable to sleep but too tired to be awake or do anything), becuase despite myself I was glad to talk to him again.