Sunday, June 19, 2011

the surprise of it all

Time flies so quickly - first with the holidays, then the busy winter ski season to end it all with end-of-school-year mayhem.  Add to that a new job in the middle of it all and it's a wonder I post here at all.   I enjoy it though.  I enjoy the camaraderie and friendships made along the way.  I enjoy the perspective.   I enjoy taking the time to collect my thoughts and put them down on screen.

It's hard to believe it's been over seven months and I had yet to make good on my promise to my Uncle's wife Karen.  This weekend I finally made good.  I kept my promise to a great woman; a woman so generous of her spirit I know if no other that can compare. Here you can read about how she gave the most precious gift of time when it was needed most.

I trekked up to my Uncle's house in the the Sierra foothills to begin the process of going through his house and clearing out his things.  And, boy, he sure has a lot of things.  A history lover by nature, his collections ranged from valuable pre-Colonial to Civil War coins and bills to beat up old Mason jars and Altoids tins, antique washboards and jars, books on the Sierra Nevada, baseball and the Civil War.  He was an avid Clamper with all the paraphernalia - pins, placards, t-shirts from events and fliers from everything he ever attended.  I'm sure.

I went up there packed with my working clothes - throw-away shorts and t-shrts, old sneakers that I could toss if needed.  I was prepared for the long, heavy lifting exercise of sorting and tossing but, much to my surprise,we didn't do much of that.  Instead we looked at pictures.  Boxes and boxes and boxes of pictures because, after all, he also was a photography buff and collected those too.

I saw pictures that I'd never seen before.  Pictures I don't even remember being taken.

Little nuggets like this:


And how about this one? Holy cow - who is this family?!  (What's with the cowboy hats?  Fashion I suppose.)

 


And then I stumbled upon some more.  Like the infamous bug:



And reminders of all the great times we've had.  Unc, me, my sister, my husband - good, good times.






And some unexpected reminiscing too; pictures of my mom poking through.




But what's that you say?  There's that hair again - don't judge.  It was the 80's.

Saving the best for last, here's my favorite:



This weekend was so intense. Wow. Just wow. What a fantastic surprise.
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