Good Saturday morning, Frankie and Gary!
Gary, I hope you're doing OK, and that you're not dealing with anything too rough right now. So you didn't have to deal with too much of a winter out there. It's been a fairly typical winter here, though even drier than usual. We had some chilly weather in January at the same time people were getting all excited about snow in North Florida, followed by a warm February. So far March has been an up and down affair, with the temp going down to 50 yesterday morning after a high of 88 on Wednesday. It's supposed to go up into the upper 80s again this weekend, followed by a low in the 50s Tuesday morning. And then rinse and repeat.
Frankie, I'm sorry that you've had to deal with such a toxic family life. Hopefully you can find compatible people outside your family to associate with, and who can see you as you are.
I've had a little time to digest what happened at my friend's memorial in Tampa. Actually, I think his sister kind of "got" him, recognizing his creative talents in art and cooking, etc. She had his artwork printed on the back of the memorial card, of a French chateau and talked about him being in heaven with his hot Italian boyfriend. She also had little bags with tiny replicas of the French flag and the Eiffel Tower to give away. One of my friend's psychic friends paid for a trip to visit Paris, something he could never have afforded to do on his own. And I did get to talk to another family member, who introduced herself as a cousin by marriage, who spoke well of him, and it was clear that she brought in a different perspective than his immediate family. I think the rest of his family couldn't accept him because he was just so different, and I think my friend developed a hard edge of anger and bitterness to protect himself.
They also were giving away some of my friend's possessions, and a woman handed me a stuffed pink and purple Cheshire Cat. Right now I have him sitting atop a ledge in my bedroom, grinning down on me. I have the feeling the cat wants to be some sort of a mascot. I thought about keeping him in my car, but he also seems quite at home overlooking me on my bed.
My life is getting back to normal. On Thursday I called Florida Power and Light, because a work crew had left some wires on the ground in my backyard last week. They sent another crew out to collect the wires, and then had to do some work on a couple of poles, apparently the first crew must have done a sloppy job. And I mowed my lawn for the first time since December, it seems the weeds were growing too high.
And I have a sore throat today, which means another weekend shot as I have to deal with yet another illness this winter. Ugh! I'm really getting hit this year after several good winters with no problems.