I've Had About As Much Fun As I Can Stand

if i needed an excuse to feel bad, i got one. today i pulled myself into work. it's a sunday but i just thought it might be clever of me to get a start on my hours, what with the auld acquaintances being forgot later on this week.

i checked my messages when i got in. i'd squirreled myself away in a training room before dialing. good thing, too. my dad left a cryptic message "you need to call home. it's not an emergency."

that got my ticker going. called the as soon as i got a dial tone. my dad answered and now for my news. my grandpa died. my dad's dad. saturday morning.

my parents had no way of contacting me. all i have right now is the work phone. i haven't had the funds to start up a cell account of my own. i half wonder if they haven't left a message with the boy, or his helpful voicemail thing.

my uncle, my dad, my grandma - they are going to try and schedule a funeral for wednesday. that's new year's eve. at first that seems like a rough choice. i was thinking that it might just be a wonderful idea. my grandpa always had a smile on his face, a chuckle ready to go, a one-liner to repeat.

he would probably like for his family and friends to get together and spend the beginning of a year in each other's company. maybe he anticipated that it would be good for me and my cousins to tie one on and retell as many stories as we could before passing out.

he was 89. you were, grandpa. you kept telling us you were 90 but we did a bit of fact checking for the paper and you were fibbing about that bit. that reminds me of one of his jokes... my grandma is a wonderful cook. she's done it for so many years for so many people. seven children and then those children had children... lots of mouths to feed. anyway, there were always people sitting around the kitchen table digging into something. i remembered eyeing my dad carefully as the last cob of corn rested on the plate. my grandpa would pipe up from his end of the table and say 'you go ahead and help yourself there. we've got a whole bunch more downstairs in a teacup.'

well, there wasn't a basement but that's not really what makes it funny. if it is in truth funny. but i loved hearing it.

i loved hearing him pull away from the table after a long night of telling the same stories for hours. he'd grin at us all and say "i'm off to bed now, i've had about as much fun as i can stand."

well, i hope that's true grandpa.