The heart is heavy yet again. Another good one goes on to the Great Beyond!

I am back. Not to depress anybody out there but man we cannot seem to catch a break around these parts. Here is this sad story. My mother in law has, had, a very good friend. She was sort of the "anti" my mother in law. She did not suffer fools and had no problem giving her opinion, nor asserting herself. She would do the same thing that I do with my mother in law, namely not allow her to get away using the adjectives "wonderful" and "nice" to describe everything, good or bad, that she encountered.

It was she who actually found out about the unit that the Outlaws bought 2 years ago. She also lived on the 2nd floor and had a balconey (the Outlaws have an uninsulated solarium that faces west, so in the summer it is hotter than Hades late in the day and freezing in the winter, though it is a nice view). She would "baby sit" my father in law in an emergency.

She goes in for a scheduled surgery on Thursday. She had said that if things were "bad", namely cancer that they wanted to treat with radiation or chemotherapy, she did not want it. She was cool with things and her life and who she is/was. Anyway, on Friday, we were told that there were no surprises in the surgery and that all was well. She was to be released today.

I got a call from my sister in law, who had heard from the aunt, that this friend had died yesterday. Apparently, there were surgical complications complete with internal bleeding. They opened her up again on Saturday and could not solve the problem. They opened her up again yesterday and she died on the table, or so I am told.

The Wife was up all night worrying about how she was going to tell her mother. There really is no way to sugar coat this one. A rock or at least an island of calm and a very positive influence in my mother in law's life is suddenly gone. Man, this life is fragile.

She was older than my mother in law but younger than my father in law. It is a very sad time indeed. I have the unenviable task of taking my mother in law to the funeral tomorrow. She lives close enough to me that it makes sense for me to swing by and then meet up with the Wife.

It is kind of funny that I have all these sad life events occurring during my life during the Days of Awe or around the Jewish High Holidays. I hope the Dude upstairs is having a good giggle at my expense. I can take it. I have to figure that there is a larger plan that I am just not privy to as of yet. That is what allows me to get to sleep at night and get up in the morning. Otherwise, I am apt to do myself in.....who is kidding whom, I could not go without taking as many others with me as I can. A blaze of glory or is that Blaze Hayes.

I wonder how Blaze Hayes is doing. I have not heard from him since March. Funny how I have to be the one to maintain contact and such. I guess that is just how it is.

Sorry for the lack of funnies but things just do not seem so funny right now. Then again, I was able to laugh at "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" after hearing the news, so maybe I am too shallow and uncaring or I compatmentalize it well. Be well all of you. Ciao!