Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020 – Another Busy Day

Dearest Roy,
I kept busy again today, starting out with the usual chores, then discussing with brother Karl the problems with the Open Range that needed to be solved, then kept an appointment down at the funeral home in Lake Worth where I picked out a beautiful carved box for your remains. As promised, I’m going to have it engraved just as you wanted it, with the poem by Omar Khayyám:
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
I’m so glad we always had the philosophy of looking to the future and not wasting time on the past and things we couldn’t change, it served us so well, and continues to do so.
Then the folks at the funeral home did something really above and beyond. Remember that Australian movie we watched about a week ago, Red Dog, a legendary canine that traveled thousands of miles across the countryside in search of his master that had died? At the time I said to you they should have just let the dog see the body, he would probably have figured it out. With that in mind, I took Lola with me, hoping they would let her see you, so that she would be at peace. She’s been sitting at the screen door a lot, evidently waiting for you, and I wanted to try to let her have the chance to understand. Well, at first they were reluctant, saying I would need to schedule a viewing to do that, which wasn’t something we were going to do, but after a while, they got together, and all being dog lovers themselves, they brought you out to a small viewing room and let me and Lola spend a few minutes with you alone. Lola took a good long look at you, and even snuffled your face a little, and I really think she understood. Their kindness made me a bit teary, and was so grateful to them for that gesture! Really above and beyond, and much appreciated!
Since we didn’t get a chance to see our friends on Boxing Day this season, and since I was in Lake Worth anyway, I contacted Jayne to see if she wanted to have lunch together, and she met me there so we could travel in one vehicle. Ironically, she suggested we have lunch on the Lake Worth Beach, which, of course, brought a moment of tears to my eyes. You and I both know why. After that night I fixed your motorcycle during a rehearsal of Lysistrata, which evidently impressed you enough to start noticing me as something more than your T&A character in the play, and we starting talking after every rehearsal, longer and longer each night, until two weeks later, on the night before we opened, we spent the entire night talking, driving down to Lake Worth Beach to watch the sun come up over the Atlantic Ocean together, then having breakfast at John G’s right there on the beach (Eggs Benedict, of course!), that was when I knew we would spend the rest of our lives together. That night, after the opening night cast party, I asked you if you wanted to come home with me, and you said yes (which I famously joked about later, “and I haven’t been able to get rid of him since!”), and that was the beginning of it all. Hard to believe it was almost 34 years ago now! Anyway, I decided it would be a great way to circle back and close that loop, so we went down to that same building, though John G’s is gone and a new restaurant is there called Mulligans. Naturally it’s completely different, but the location is the same, so it fit the bill. It was very windy, but we sat outside with Lola anyway (who kept herself busy pointing at pigeons that were walking by looking for scraps) and reminisced a bit, and got caught up on each other’s lives somewhat. It was a nice lunch, and I appreciated the company.
After dropping her back off at her truck, I took a quick detour to Walmart for some fuel, then up to Town and Country for hay, where I got a phone call from Karl wanting to go back to the Irish Pub but Jeff’s job was turning out to take longer than I expected and could I come and get him and take him to the pub? So I turned back around and we did just that. You know what a sucker I am for Guinness on tap, and I ended up probably having one too many, because we stayed until the Irish music started (a regular Thursday night event, apparently), and Jeff joined us after about an hour, making it quite the family affair. Inevitably, we talked about stuff that happened when we were kids, about the cottage, about times from nearly 40 years ago now, some of which I had never heard before. Eventually we made it back home by 9:00, got the animals fed, and finally settled down for a short evening. Good night, my love! Love you!