In February the New England area the schools do one interesting thing. They take the 3rd week of February off school. This is February break. Ask me how much I enjoy this. On one hand, I get to sleep in, on the other, my 15 year old son is home and wants me to entertain him. This is one of the few times I wish he had a sibling. I could lock them in a room together and let them go at it. Heh. He doesn't have that many friends in the area, and the one that he has we don't like. Let's just say that there are some choices being made there that we don't like and wouldn't make.
Anyway, he's home, it's break, and because of all the stuff going on with his dad, he's velcro-boy (TM). He is sitting almost on top of me on our tiny couch as we watch House (I have mad, mad love for Hugh Laurie). DH is still asleep in the bedroom, having come home last night, which is a story for another post, otherwise he would be in the bedroom watching TV so I could play my Animal Crossing.
Sometimes, though, break comes in handy. Like 8 years ago. We moved up here from the Midwest in the middle of the winter of 2002-03. On a side note, there was snow on the ground, and we didn't see grass until April. Comes from living in the Great White North. That following February we got a call that my baby brother was dying. Now, by we, I mean my mom, my son and me. We got the news on Tuesday, mom flew out Wednesday, the boy and I flew out on Thursday. He was already dead by the time I flew out. All my sibs, my parents and I got together on a call, they were all there, I was here, and we discussed what to do. Baby brother was in pain and there was nothing they could do for him. There was no cure, no nothing, and they couldn't give him enough painkiller. So, we decided to pull the plug on his life support. He was awake enough to agree. I was asked if I wanted them to wait. I decided no, since he was in pain. Therefore, I was the only one who didn't get to say goodbye.
The reason that February break came in handy that year is that this happened during break. He didn't miss a lot of school. We were down there for most of a week, between viewings (2), the funeral and the burial. When we got back to the Great White North, we got asked when we were going to go back to bury him. The reason we were asked this is because in this state, it is state law that all the cemeteries are closed 10/31-5/1. Remember the snow I mentioned? Right now we have around 2 feet on the ground. That year we had more. Do you know what happens when you have that much snow on the ground? Or what it takes to have that much snow on the ground? The ground has to be frozen. Try burying someone when the ground is frozen down 5 feet. Or when the cemetery is up in the mountains and there is one curvy steep road and 2 feet of snow on the ground. So, the northern New England states don't bury people in the winter. They store them in a vault over the winter.
People were surprised when we told them he was already buried. I was surprised when I found out people don't bury their dead in the winter here. We all get used to the way things are always done where we are and it's always shocking when things are different, even the little things. Sometimes the little things are the most surprising. We expect the big things to be different. We don't expect the little ones.
As I look back over this post, it really is rambling, isn't it? But, I think I will let it stand. It's early, OK, it's really not all that early since it is almost 9 am where I am, and I've been up for a couple of hours, which really sucks since I can sleep in this week, but my brain feels like it's early, which is why the ramble. I've got things to do, like some writing that pays, and some writing that I hope will pay at some point. Check out the link on the side for an example of the latter, or the post about the week in recap a couple of days ago, if you want to see what my professional type writing looks like. I promise it doesn't ramble.
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