Oh my aching back.
After three days of lumping boards and shoveling wet muck, my back is in open rebellion. Yesterday I reached for something and muscle in my shoulder and neck went 'twang'! And I totally forgot to buy ibuprofen today.
I had to bury the cat this morning. I wanted to get it done before I had to fetch Biv. No need for her sympathies. While I was digging I got a text from her saying she was not coming in. Infected toe. Yes, that's right. And infected toe. But she texted me later today to say she would make it in tomorrow. Funny thing, she never once complained about her foot or toe all day yesterday.
Yesterday... I got in early to check the grave and set up another for a cremation. There was about two feet of water in the hole. I got the pump and set it up, got it running and took out about a foot of water. Squared off the hole. Then went to do the cremation. The vault guy shows up, and thankfully it's a good one, but the vault is the kind that has a hole in the bottom (for drainage) which when lowered into the water, shot a fountain of muddy water up into the vault. The alternative would have been a vault with no hole that floated around in the grave. Not good choices either way.
After the cremation (which has it's own story I'll get back to) I went back with the pump, but couldn't get it started again. I went to get ether at the shop, and when I got back, the vault guy had started it. But it wasn't pumping for some reason. No amount of fooling with it would get it to work. And the tied in the vault was still rising. We had to plug the hole. So I went back to get some 'dum dum' or black rubber and plugged the hole for the most part with that. It was still leaking in, but much slower, and we were able to bail it out enough for the funeral.
Overall, things went pretty well.
Meanwhile, back at the cremation...
I had pulled over on the side of the road while the family was doing their thing. A visitor came by as I was waiting, and drove by me. He's an old guy, and I knew he would be backing down, so I pulled the truck way over off the road to give him plenty of room. Well, on his way down, he stopped to talk to me. I know the guy from a past incident, so I was ready. He starts telling me about how he was backing down the road, and he hit a woman's car, and tore the side of both their cars up pretty good. He's blaming her for not pulling off far enough, but he got the surcharge on his car. Then he tries to make it out to be the cemetery's fault because there is no turn around, and he has to back the car up. All the while he's trying to be in my face, which isn't easy because he's very short, and absolutely has short man's disease. And he had this thing on his eye I was dying to pick off... but I digress....
So he starts out pleasant enough, but then he gets into how he worked for the government and he knows this and that.. and he wants to talk to somebody in charge and he's going to write a letter to the mayor.. and I'm pleasant at first listening to him, but then he starts telling me who I think I am.. and I tell him he doesn't know the first thing about me.. and basically I go off on him and tell him it's nothing to do with the cemetery that he hit another car and he can certainly feel free to speak to the Supt. and this is the address bla bla bla... And all the while he's trying to be in my face, and I just thank goodness he didn't have bad breath so I didn't have to back down. As we went round and round he finally got back to what he must have wanted to get out originally, which was why cant there be a turn around at the end of the drive? Why he couldn't have asked that to begin with... well, short man syndrome got in the way. So I told him I would absolutely bring it up at the meeting and we'd talk about it. I think he thinks he's going to sue us for his accident if he doesn't get his turn around. I honestly think the old guy is losing it. When you drive a car forward or backward, no matter where you are, if there is another car in the way, and you can't get around it, you don't scrape by it, you wait until they move, or ask them to move. This guy is entirely at fault, which is why he was charged. He probably shouldn't be driving.
But you know what? I'll probably get the last word, as he's in his 80's :)
In other news, Peter Graves died a few days ago. I liked him as an actor, and he was a handsome guy well into his old age. RIP Peter. (cue the Mission Impossible theme)
The town of Duxbury is going to be building a new crematorium. There was an article in the paper about how Duxbury is the third busiest crematory in the nation. I find that hard to believe, but up until this year when Plymouth opened a crematory, Duxbury was serving basically the entire South of Boston community and the Cape. They run a good business from what I've heard. More power to them... and speaking of that, I don't know if Plymouth did it, even though they talked about it, but how about re-using some of that heat and power for other purposes? Waste not want not! Yeah, right.
I keep forgetting, maybe because I am exhausted, that we finally saw Slumdog Millionair. I was really blown away by it first because I thought it was going to be a musical of sorts, and second by how well the story was told. Totally nothing like what I was expecting. Great movie. Himself even thought so.
Ok, got to go catch up on LOST now.
I had to bury the cat this morning. I wanted to get it done before I had to fetch Biv. No need for her sympathies. While I was digging I got a text from her saying she was not coming in. Infected toe. Yes, that's right. And infected toe. But she texted me later today to say she would make it in tomorrow. Funny thing, she never once complained about her foot or toe all day yesterday.
Yesterday... I got in early to check the grave and set up another for a cremation. There was about two feet of water in the hole. I got the pump and set it up, got it running and took out about a foot of water. Squared off the hole. Then went to do the cremation. The vault guy shows up, and thankfully it's a good one, but the vault is the kind that has a hole in the bottom (for drainage) which when lowered into the water, shot a fountain of muddy water up into the vault. The alternative would have been a vault with no hole that floated around in the grave. Not good choices either way.
After the cremation (which has it's own story I'll get back to) I went back with the pump, but couldn't get it started again. I went to get ether at the shop, and when I got back, the vault guy had started it. But it wasn't pumping for some reason. No amount of fooling with it would get it to work. And the tied in the vault was still rising. We had to plug the hole. So I went back to get some 'dum dum' or black rubber and plugged the hole for the most part with that. It was still leaking in, but much slower, and we were able to bail it out enough for the funeral.
Overall, things went pretty well.
Meanwhile, back at the cremation...
I had pulled over on the side of the road while the family was doing their thing. A visitor came by as I was waiting, and drove by me. He's an old guy, and I knew he would be backing down, so I pulled the truck way over off the road to give him plenty of room. Well, on his way down, he stopped to talk to me. I know the guy from a past incident, so I was ready. He starts telling me about how he was backing down the road, and he hit a woman's car, and tore the side of both their cars up pretty good. He's blaming her for not pulling off far enough, but he got the surcharge on his car. Then he tries to make it out to be the cemetery's fault because there is no turn around, and he has to back the car up. All the while he's trying to be in my face, which isn't easy because he's very short, and absolutely has short man's disease. And he had this thing on his eye I was dying to pick off... but I digress....
So he starts out pleasant enough, but then he gets into how he worked for the government and he knows this and that.. and he wants to talk to somebody in charge and he's going to write a letter to the mayor.. and I'm pleasant at first listening to him, but then he starts telling me who I think I am.. and I tell him he doesn't know the first thing about me.. and basically I go off on him and tell him it's nothing to do with the cemetery that he hit another car and he can certainly feel free to speak to the Supt. and this is the address bla bla bla... And all the while he's trying to be in my face, and I just thank goodness he didn't have bad breath so I didn't have to back down. As we went round and round he finally got back to what he must have wanted to get out originally, which was why cant there be a turn around at the end of the drive? Why he couldn't have asked that to begin with... well, short man syndrome got in the way. So I told him I would absolutely bring it up at the meeting and we'd talk about it. I think he thinks he's going to sue us for his accident if he doesn't get his turn around. I honestly think the old guy is losing it. When you drive a car forward or backward, no matter where you are, if there is another car in the way, and you can't get around it, you don't scrape by it, you wait until they move, or ask them to move. This guy is entirely at fault, which is why he was charged. He probably shouldn't be driving.
But you know what? I'll probably get the last word, as he's in his 80's :)
In other news, Peter Graves died a few days ago. I liked him as an actor, and he was a handsome guy well into his old age. RIP Peter. (cue the Mission Impossible theme)
The town of Duxbury is going to be building a new crematorium. There was an article in the paper about how Duxbury is the third busiest crematory in the nation. I find that hard to believe, but up until this year when Plymouth opened a crematory, Duxbury was serving basically the entire South of Boston community and the Cape. They run a good business from what I've heard. More power to them... and speaking of that, I don't know if Plymouth did it, even though they talked about it, but how about re-using some of that heat and power for other purposes? Waste not want not! Yeah, right.
I keep forgetting, maybe because I am exhausted, that we finally saw Slumdog Millionair. I was really blown away by it first because I thought it was going to be a musical of sorts, and second by how well the story was told. Totally nothing like what I was expecting. Great movie. Himself even thought so.
Ok, got to go catch up on LOST now.