Ten-Finger Exercises

Procrastinating on a snowy evening.

The snow has been coming down heavily since last night, with a partial melt during the day to make the roads more calamitous. if that's a word. Fortunately I got to ride with a nurse in her Expedition as we made our way north to the Snake river, a fifty mile trip up on poorly marked and sparsely traveled country roads. It's a good thing she'd been there just a few days before or we'd never have found the place in this white out. All the little landmarks were obscured by snow, and later fog. Only the big grain elevators marked the way. The patient may not live the night, and I'm glad it's not my night on call. I'd hate to make the trip again in the dark.

I'm procrastinating, and it's getting to the 11th hour, figuratively speaking. I have to get a memorial service planned tonight before I go to bed, and I'd like to get a good night's sleep. It's so hard to figure out what to say when you've never met the person and the family can only come up with a couple of general statements. "She was a good mother" is wonderful, but it doesn't take much time to say without some illustrations. Add in that they want a touch of religion for her mother's sake, but that no one in the family is religious. So that means they want the 23rd psalm, "because it's traditional, isn't it?" Traditional among families who aren't familiar with anything else in the Bible, but that's unfair. Other people like it too. At least they don't want the music that fits in the same category, songs they've heard at funerals before but that don't mean anything to them personally, like "The Old Rugged Cross" and "Amazing Grace" and "How Great Thou Art." Not that there's anything wrong with them, but if they don't fit the person who died, I wish they'd come up with something else. There's one hymn I actually don't like and might even try to talk a family out of: In the Garden.
There's something just sappy about it to me. I once heard it paraphrased: "And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He chucks me under the chin." That's the feeling it gives me.

These folks at first had no suggestions other than, tongue-in-cheek, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Fortunately her mom had a list that included "Bridge over Troubled Waters" and "Let Peace Begin with Me." And Eagles Wings, another funeral favorite but such a nice song. All more contemporary and fitting for a 50 yr old.

Well, I'd better get on with it. Bill called to say it was too warm for hunting today. He's in Indiana with his kids, pheasant hunting, while it's 17 degrees here and snowing. I'm glad he's having a good time, but I sure miss him these cold nights.

Maybe tomorrow night I'll have time to actually read some blogs. That would be good.