Wednesday

I awoke at 5:30 AM on Wednesday. It was raining here in Redford. I made a pot of coffee and had a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

I've got two trips to make today: one to work to drop off more of my doctor's paperwork and the other to drive out to New Baltimore and go to the funeral home for my Mom.

Since it will probably be an exhausting day, I decided to make some beef stew. As you know, the usual beef stew I make is quite elaborate and done on the stovetop. But, I found a fairly simple recipe for the slow cooker and proceeded to put it together.

I put in two pounds of stewing beef and then in a small bowl, I mixed together 1/4 cup of flour, one teaspoon kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. I poured that on the meat and stirred it to coat it evenly. Then I added three diced potatoes, two big carrots (also diced), one minced garlic clove, a half of a sliced Vidalia onion and a diced stalk of celery.

I poured in 1 1/2 cups of beef broth and a teaspoon of paprika. Then, tragedy struck. I couldn't find any bay leaves! So, I went out on the patio and snipped a nice stalk of rosemary and several ones of thyme. I stirred everything up, topped it with the herbs, put on the lid and turned it on low.

Next I got ready to go into work. I took in the paperwork and chatted with my co-workers and my boss for a little while. Then I headed back home.

Then at 12:30 PM, I headed for the funeral home. I gave myself an extra half hour to account for the rain that was falling as normally that slows the freeways WAY down. However, as luck would have it, everybody ignored it! So, I got to the funeral home (even after driving past it several times) about 40 minutes too early.

So, I drove over to Mom's house (Luanne is staying there). I chatted a bit with her then she went to get ready. So, I opened a World Almanac that Mom had left out and started leafing though it. For some reason, there were odd bookmarks with my Mom's handwriting. For example, on the map of Japan page, she had listed the flight times from Michigan to Japan, including the layovers. Has she been planning an art heist and her getaway? We'll never know, I guess.

Soon it was time to leave, so I said goodbye to Lu and went to the funeral home. My brothers Carl and Joe were there (Jim showed up soon after) My Mother looked very nice and there were just enough flowers to make it interesting and pretty without being over the top.

Most of the visitors were old friends of my Mother, although my friend B___ and his wife stopped in. Besides my brothers, Luanne, Jim's wife Coletta and Joe's wife Kathy were there. My brother Carl showed up a bit later. We were also joined by Jim's son, Jim Jr. and later his wife Deanna, Carl's son Jeff and his wife (up from Texas), Joe's daughter Julie and her son and daughter and my sister's Anne's son Jason, his wife Becky and their daughter.

I stayed for about two hours and then had to leave. I really needed to just get home, take a pain pill and a nap. Except for a major traffic jam just before Telegraph on I-96, the ride home was quick and uneventful. I got home about 5:20 PM.

After seeing all the puddles, I was curious, so I went out and checked the rain gauge after giving the cats a snack. So far, I've had about 1/4 inch of rain. I dumped it so I could tell how much if and when we get any more.

I took that much needed pain pill, a few soda crackers (to minimize barfing), changed clothes and lay down on the bed. I did doze off and was awakened by Jake and Carla, jusr after 7:00 PM.

Jake's been building me a new computer. He bought a new one so volunteered to rebuild his own one to replace my aging one. So, he got me a new case (about half again as big as my old one with all kinds of intake and exhaust fans), new power supply, etc. In fact, I think the mother board is the only piece of original equipment.

I visited with Carla in the kitchen while he set it all up and fine tuned it. It was good to go by 9:00 PM, so they left. I played around with it for a bit (man that sucker's fast!) and then watched Top Chef. After that, I went to bed for the night.