so it was a wierd weekend...well, maybe not wierd but not like many i've had in the past while...
jojo was nice enough to make me dinner on saturday night (which was not part of the wierd part of the weekend...), chicken curry and crazy chocolate spice ball dessert..showing me she can actually cook-something she told me she could do even though she burns toast...that's the truth...get back jojo...
sunday morning i had to head to vancouver island...the worst part of the day was that i had gotten to bed at 2:30 am, which was actually 3:30 am, and then i had to be up at 6:30 in order to get the 8:30 ferry at horseshoe bay to get to my uncle ken's memorial service in duncan by 1 pm... if they had a 10:00 am ferry and not a 10:30 am ferry i could have had a little sleep in...but no. i ended up on the same ferry as my uncle glen and aunt denny who had my second cousin alan in tow. everytime i see alan, who incidently is my only asian cousin-i have no idea how this works but he's definately chinese and he's my cousin...anyhow, whenever i see him and talk to him i get the impression that he may be one of the smartest people i have ever met. and even though he is 70, i believe, he looks like he's in his mid-fifties and could probably run circles around all of us.
so there i was in duncan with a couple of hours to burn. good times. the memorial was at the cowichan golf and country club just outside of duncan. i knew virtually no one but did see a couple of cousins that i hadn't seen in many years. ken's daughter ,joanne, i see from time to time but his other daughter, stephanie, i never ever see. she lives in calgary and i think we said hello but that was it.
my dad, floyd, was the MC and did a great job...and this is where it got weird for me...it was an odd thing. i have vague remeberances of my uncle ken, who really was a great-uncle. he was in his 80's and was the brother of my grandfather-the man i was named after, garnet sr. i suppose. when i was going to shawnigan lake school in the 80's i had dinner with him a few times but really over the years would only see him at family gatherings and even then had no great dealings with him. he and my grandfather were handsome men and both seemed a little larger than life to me. ken was actually a bit of a mystery as i never really saw him that much wheras my grandfather was around a lot in my life and made sure i knew how to do a few things-taught me how to change a tire, things like that. he also had a large collection of playboy magazines that kept me entertained for a long time.
anyhow..it was odd watching my dad run through the ceremony. i found myself a little choked up a few times but not for any reason i could really figure out. i knew ken, obviously, but wasn't upset by his passing, or not so much as i should feel so sad. i think when i thought about it later on or think about it now, it was the realization that i will, one day, have to do the same task. i have never had any probelm speaking in front of others so the fear of that doesn't even enter into it. i think as i sat there the realization that my parents are getting older, although thier race is far from over hopefully, i will one day have to be the MC, and i'm not ready for that yet. my relationship with my father nis an odd one at the best of times but i do know this, i do love him and maybe that's what i felt yesterday. i also have a great affection for my aunt and uncle who were there as well.
i do know this as well...when i go...i don't want anything like that for me. i think that sort of thing is too hard on people. many times when i have forgotten something i've wanted to put away it comes back at the drop of a hat and i'm forced to re-live it.
and i will say this here and now. i love you all..but when i kick the giant can..just go and have a burrito and talk smack about me...
ok...on to the pics...the garbs and i pressure washed judy's place on saturday...what a fuckin' mess...and because joel's pressure washer fell over in the van i now have to get it fixed so another favor done that's gonna cost me a ton of cash...good times...
at the country club where the service was there was a big frame containing pictures of the current board members for the country club....one of them has the name don bull... hopefully he's not as big a knob as the don bull we know...
have fun...again, i love you all...
g. xo
ps..the ferry still sucks...$100.00 there and back for a whole lotta pain.
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