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My dad called me today to let me know that Grandma passed away this afternoon. She’d been in a nursing home for a little over a year, and had a few health issues in that time, but had always bounced back from them. This past Saturday the workers at the home told my mom’s oldest sister that Grandma wasn’t doing so well and that the family should come to see her. All of her children were able to go see her on Sunday, and they were able to talk to her a little bit. Today she slipped away, peacefully, I’m told.

The picture above is of my grandpa and grandma, my mom’s parents. I never knew my dad’s parents, so mom’s parents were the grandparents we spent the holidays with. That picture was taken before I was born, and comes courtesy of my cousin’s Facebook page. I don’t think I’d ever seen it before, and I absolutely love it. It instantly became one of my favorite pictures ever.

Grandma was one-of-a-kind. I’m not very good at descriptions, so it’d be hard for me to tell you why she was, but she was.  Here are just a couple of memories I have:

• One of the reasons I’ve been so excited about Throwback Pepsi being back on the market these days is because it tastes like Pepsi tasted at Grandma’s house. Wisconsin is Pepsi Country (in case you didn’t know), and any time we were at Grandma’s she had some available.
• When we were very young, my brother and I stayed at Grandma & Grandpa’s for a week during the summer a couple of times. Grandma took us fishing, and the only thing I ever caught were crawdads. I didn’t end up liking fishing that much – I much preferred making boats out of pieces of 2x4s and floating them on the creek while my brother and Grandma fished. Grandma never let me forget that I didn’t like fishing. I saw her last in March of this year and, sure enough, she said something about how I didn’t like fishing. I probably would have been disappointed if she hadn’t.
• Once she took my brother and I to see the Chicago Bears during their training camp, which they were having in Grandma’s home town.  I didn’t know much about the Bears, but it was neat to see an NFL team in person.
• That same town (Platteville, WI) had a Shakespeare Festival in late summer or early fall (I think…), and we saw a couple of plays here and there. My brother even took some friends when he was in college a couple times.
• Grandma would always “complain” about how many cats roamed around the farm, but come supper time she always put out some food for them, even if it was just bread soaked in milk .
• Grandma loved to play Scrabble. I didn’t play in any games with her until college, but she would hassle you about words you played and in the very next turn would try to sneak something past you.  I have her old Scrabble board now, and it is a prized possession.
• Juicy Fruit gum isn’t very good, but I’ll never turn down a piece if I’m offered one. Grandma always had some in her purse, so it’s another reminder of childhood.
• Her house was always full of books and Reader’s Digest magazines. When the grown-ups were talking too late and the cousins were mostly gone, I read Laughter Is the Best Medicine out of any Digest I could find.

I’ll always wish I had known her better, but I’m glad I knew her at all. I’ve inherited some of her qualities, both good and bad, and I’ll never forget her.

Grandpa passed away in 1999. Grandma was the last living grandparent I had. I’m glad that they are reunited in heaven, and I look forward to seeing them again some day. Until then, I’ll miss them both.

Goodbye for now, Grandma. I love you.

Song Info (from Beatlesongs):”The End” is on the Abbey Road album, and was 100% written by McCartney.  “Appropriately, this was the last significant song at the end of the last album recorded by The Beatles.”

This is me admitting defeat. If it takes 10 months to finish Beatles Week, it probably isn’t going to happen.  Of course, by admitting I am not finishing Beatles Week, I am actually finishing Beatles Week… hmm…

Anyway, this is the end of Beatles Week.  I’ve had several ideas for posts over the last few months, but none of them fit Beatles Week, so I didn’t do them and now they’re gone. If I don’t call this Week finished, I may never write again. I still want to average a post a week this year before I turn 40, and I’ve only got 9 months left to do it, so I had to do something. I hope this gets me back to writing.

I think I won’t do a 2011 Beatles Week. I love the idea of it and will most likely come back to it some day, but it seems silly to start one so close to the end of this one.

Thanks for reading!

Song Info (from Beatlesongs):”Fixing A Hole” is on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and was 100% written by Paul McCartney, after repairing the roof on his Scottish farm. Said Paul, “The night we went to record that, a guy turned up at my house who announced himself as Jesus. So I took him to the session. You know, couldn’t harm, I thought. Introduced Jesus to the guys. Quite reasonable about it. But that was it. Last we ever saw of Jesus.”

The men’s staff restroom at work has a motion sensor-controlled light. The sensor must be optimally placed, because opening the door even slightly will turn the lights on. Once the lights are on, they turn off after about five minutes of no motion.

So it’s been weird for me that since summer started and the place is mostly empty any time I’ve gone to the restroom the light has already been on.  Suspicious, really. I look forward to the building emptying out during the summer, so  it made me wonder what was going on. But I think I figured out yesterday what the deal was.

Spiders.

I’m not just talking about normal little spiders here. You’ve seen The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King? You remember Shelob? Yeah. You  might think I’m exaggerating, but think with me here – would normal-sized spiders set off the motion sensors? I don’t think so.

What is it about spiders that creep people out so much? I’m not one for insects in general, but spiders are way worse for me. Maybe it’s the two extra legs?  I don’t know. The feeling of walking into a spiderweb isn’t helping spiders’ cases any, either. Just seeing a spider walking around causes me to tense up. If the spider happens to be doing his walking around in a place where I’m trying to live, well, I’m sorry, but that’s a spider who has decided to no longer live. If it’s doing it’s walking around outside, I do my best to let it keep wandering unhindered – this represents growth on my part, I would like to point out.

My Australian friend Carolyn loves spiders, but she lives on a gigantic island full of animals who’d sooner kill you than look at you (yes, kangaroos, I’m including you in that list), so spiders probably seem tame by comparison. For most of the rest of us, though, we’d be fine not seeing any spiders for weeks at a time. Scientists have speculated that we’re never more than three feet from a spider at any given time, but scientists are apparently jerks who hate everyone, so it’s best we just ignore them on this point.

You can’t keep spiders out of things, I think that’s the biggest problem with them. Doesn’t matter how many holes you fix, spiders will still get in. Everywhere. There’s no stopping them. Bug sprays might put them off for a while, but they’ll be back, and they’ll probably bring friends (though I’m not sure how spiders would have friends, as it seems spiders are so creepy that even other spiders wouldn’t want to hang out with them). Face it, you’re pretty much stuck with spiders. Yeah, yeah, I know they’re supposed to cut down on the fly and mosquito populations, but I haven’t noticed any absence of those, so spiders clearly aren’t doing their job, so not only are they super creepy, they’re apparently lazy, too.

Weird thing is, I’m a big fan of Spider-Man. He’s my second-favorite superhero, but I don’t know why! It certainly seems like I’d be loathe to even pick up a comic book with him on the cover, but I guess his humor and pathos outweighs the creep-out factor. Still, there’ve been a few spider-intensive panels here and there that almost did me in. Peter getting in touch with his spidery side, that kind of thing. No, thanks!

So I guess what I’m trying to say here is, spiders, if you’re reading this (with you freaky eight little beady eyes), can we just make some sort of deal where you’re not in rooms I’m in, especially when those rooms are restrooms? Please? In return, I promise to… hmm. Kill your friends more quickly and painlessly? That’s the best I can offer.