And today's funeral...

Great-Uncle Farmer was laid to rest today. During the short ceremony at the church, the pastor told us a great story which I have to share.

Great-Uncle Farmer noticed a pair of headlights in the middle of his cornfield late one night, and knew someone had been stealing his sweet corn. He grabbed his shotgun and went out to confront the thief.

The thief was taken completely by surprise because Great-Uncle Farmer snuck up behind him. The thief said to Great-Uncle Farmer, "Please don't call the police!"

Great-Uncle Farmer said, "No, I'm not going to call the police. I'm gonna make you go home and tell your wife what you been up to."

(And yes, I'm sure Great-Uncle Farmer knew the thief and his wife. It's a small community in some ways...)

There was a song at the beginning of the funeral, and that went off without a hitch, and then there was a song that was supposed to be played at the end, but the CD player wouldn't work. So we all adjourned to the cemetery or the basement, and eventually, toward the end of lunch, the pastor announced that another CD player had been found and that they were going to play the song. The room quieted, and then Great-Uncle Farmer's son stood there, holding the amp microphone in front of a tiny boombox so that the sound could be heard through the amp. The song was a Patsy Cline song, very moving. The CD, however, began to skip. At first there was laughter, and then silence again, but then the CD became more and more recalcitrant. Great-Uncle Farmer's son was determined, though, and through it all he stood with his head bowed, microphone held obediently in front of the boombox as the song skipped and stuttered to its conclusion.

It reminded me so much of what I know of his father. You go out and you get the job done, you soldier through each thing with quiet determination. And it was this last task for his father, and even though everyone went back to talking and the song played out to its ending with almost no one to notice, I still felt teary-eyed over it.

Meme

Stolen from hardboiledbaby.

1. Go to wikipedia.org. Select 'Random Article'. Whatever comes up is the name of your band.

2. Go to quotationspage.com. Select 'Random Quote'. Choose any quote you like on the page, the last few words of the quote are your album title.

3. Go to flickr.com. Select 'Explore'. Select 'Interesting photos from the last 7 days'. The third image is your album cover.

4. Photoshop! (or use any photo editing site)

Well, HBB's worked together well, but mine works together a little too well and ends up as weird. Maybe even creepy.



The Devil Hits Back: The name of an album, amusingly enough.
"People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed." -Samuel Johnson