Prior to move in I had a painter come in an do the living room, hallway and both bedrooms. Yesterday I started to paint the front bathroom. It's looking pretty awesome so far, still have to do the contrast wall but that should go quickly. Then next to the kitchen and master bathroom. I shall set a goal of having all the painting completed by end of January. Fingers crossed.
At our annual Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club meeting I was voted in a club president. I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed about that. I know I'll do fine, but filling Sabine's shoes will be no easy feat. I'm more than a little sad to see her step down and ultimately move to another club. I know it will be a wonderful move for her, being with her honey, racing together, and they are a wonderful group of people, but I'll still miss her here in Seattle.
Towards the end of October I had the biggest shock of the year. My brother passed away unexpectedly. He'd gotten the flu and as will most illnesses it traveled to his lungs. He'd had a history of asthma from the time he was a toddler. I'd spoken to him on Saturday night after the completion of Sukkot, I could hear he had the chills so I cut the conversation a bit short. The shock of the phone call from my sister in law (SIL) Wednesday morning telling me he was gone was almost more than I could handle. It can't be real, it just can't. I rushed out to Colorado and help SIL with the funeral preparations. I can honestly say I now have way too much experience in coordinating orthodox Jewish funerals, sigh.
The morning of the funeral, that Friday, dawned bright and clear and cold. It was a really beautiful morning, too beautiful for the task at hand. At 28 degrees, the temperature helped temper the beauty of the day. At the cemetery I was surprised by how many lives my brother touched. There were at least a dozen rabbis in attendance from all flavors of congregations and many of his masonic brethren and co-workers were there as well. Rabbi Yossi, his friend from rabbi school back in New Jersey, both helped to prepare him for burial and guided the service. He is a very good friend and I thank him for all he did for us.
Back at the house I decided to attack the sun room. It was still filled with boxes and boxes of things from The Mother's house. My poor brother was such a gentle, sensitive soul he couldn't bear to go through all those memories without being overcome with grief. How different from my own perception of going through the boxes, I would see it as a kind of treasure hunt, "ooh I remember when she got this, she enjoyed it so." I wish he could have seen it that way. Anyway, I couldn't ask SIL to go through my memories, my memories of my mother, so I tasked myself with going through all of it before I headed back to Seattle. What a job it was! Thank goodness her mother was able to help me with it, I couldn't have done it without her. Working like there was no tomorrow we managed to get through better than half of the sunroom creating three piles: 1) trash, 2) donate, 3) keep (by far the smallest pile). We were expecting folks to arrive on Sunday to help move stuff to donation, take down the sukkah, and move the wood pile so I was particularly driven to have everything gone through before they arrived. I ended up calling my buddy Fisch to help with the final push on Sat. We got through everything in an hour with him, he is so great, I really value his friendship.
On Sunday many of the Masonic brothers and Chabad folks arrived and set to the tasks at hand! The sukkah came down and was put away. With the storm the day before my brother passed a couple of the guys had chain saws and were able to cut wood to fit into the wood stove before re-piling it nearer the back door. We set up a bucket brigade to transfer donation stuff out to the waiting pick up truck. Four full loads to donation and five to trash! Then we moved boxes from the garage into the now empty sunroom so SIL could go through them at her leisure. Wow! It was all completed within 2.5 hours! Amazing!
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