A sad thing, and a funny/disturbing thing.

[xiphias]

Lis's Grandma Rose died last night at about 3:15. It wasn't unexpected; we'd gotten a call a couple days ago to expect it within 72 hours or so, and she'd already been in hospice.

We skipped Arisia this year to go out to Chicago to see her, which was good, because she started fading fast after that. Which we'd expected -- we planned that trip knowing that it would be our last time seeing her. She got to meet our nephew, her great-grandson, and play with him.

We're flying out to Chicago tomorrow for the funeral on Monday, and should be back Tuesday night -- we'll spend most of Tuesday in Chicago with the family there, in case they need anything. Lis's Uncle Dan (Grandma Rose's son) lives out there with his wife and three children, and I suspect this will be hard on him, and them. Lis's Great-aunt Paula, Grandma Rose's sister, lives there, too, and this will be VERY hard on her -- she and Rose were very close, at least as adults. When they were kids, it was a different story, but, over the past sixty years, they became best friends.

Grandma Rose hasn't been in good health for a long time -- she's been housebound by crippling bursitis and other painful ailments almost since Lis and I met. Yet she had a stoical attitude towards it -- I can't say she was HAPPY about being in constant pain, but she accepted it as simply what was. Yeah. "Stoic" is a good word for her -- not unaware of her emotions, but being ruled by rational thought and acceptance of what is and what cannot be changed. We got to see her before she got sick enough that she started to lose that objectivity.

I'm going to miss her.


And now for the funny/disturbing thing:

As we were driving home from Route 1 today, we passed by one of our local ice cream places.

I said to Lis, "I just saw it out of the corner of my eye, but it looked to me like there was a giant disemboweled orange teddy bear giving a Nazi salute in the parking lot of Soc's."

She said, "Do you want to turn around and see what it actually was?"

I said I did, and we did.

It was not, of course, a giant disemboweled orange teddy bear giving a Nazi salute.

It was a giant orange anthropomorphic hot dog giving a Nazi salute with its arms broken off at the elbows.

Among other disturbing things about this hot dog was the fact that the hot dog extended beyond the bun in on both ends -- on the top end was a face, and on the bottom end wasn't. But the bottom end of the hot dog was really about as long as the hot dog's legs, which were on either side of it, making it look. . . . um . . . very . . . Jeff Stryker.

The teddy bear would have been preferable.

Comments

[kiya]

I can't get commenting on Lis's blog to work for me at the moment, so could you please relay my condolences?

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

My condolences to Lis and her family.

Soc's hot dog man

[(Anonymous)]

Oh my gosh! I stumbled onto your wife's blog looking for something local, and then started reading yours as well. Anyway, I drove by Soc's today and you are right - that Hot Dog creature is sooooo creepy and disturbing. Definitely not something to make you want to stop and have a snack! (I don't recall the arms being broken but I didn't slow down enough to be sure.)
Beth