Hightailing it west

First of all, thanks to all of you who passed along such kind words for my wife after her father died this week. Alas, the holiday season is a bit of an afterthought for us this year. But I have some updates to pass along.

That phone call to my mom wasn't so bad. She started crying when I told him he had died, but then I reminded her that his suffering is over, and he has gone off to rejoin his wife he had been separated from for five years. That made her feel a little better about it. (By the way, my dad died 12 years ago.)

My FIL died at the age of 78--making him the member of his family who has lived the longest. My mom is 85 now and doing fairly well.

The rest of this has to do a lot with the weather and the funeral. It has been scheduled for Monday morning (yes, Christmas Eve), with the wake on Sunday night. Our original plan was to drive over there on Sunday afternoon--it's about a four-hour drive in good weather.

Then we started paying attention to the weather forecast ... and as a result, we will leave about noon Saturday. A big winter storm is bearing down on this area. Its biggest impact (heavy snow and high winds) will be right where I live, and the swath of snow includes most of northern Wisconsin--my entire route.

The forecast says the storm will hit here overnight Saturday and last most of Sunday. No, I don't want to drive through that. So we plan to leave at noon today and hightail it west across northern Wisconsin to Ladysmith, WI, where the services will be held.

The forecast says, I'll drive through rain and fog that changes to snow as I head west--but the snow won't be too heavy until after we get to Ladysmith--it really gets cranking overnight. I've already reserved motel rooms. Tonight, we can visit a sister or two, or we can stay at the motel. Sunday, the storm will be blowing outside most of the day. Fortunately, the motel has a restaurant next door. (It's also got internet, so I'll take my laptop along.)

I'll bring a collapsible shovel--the wake is still set for Sunday evening, and we'll have to get there.

Even so, that's much preferable to the absolute hell of driving through a heavy snowstorm. Our only storm driving will be in town, and I can handle that.

Also, it now looks like my older son will be able to get home for Christmas after all. The new plan is that he will drive up on Monday from Detroit--the Lower Peninsula misses nearly all the storm. I told him to arrive Monday around 7 or 8 p.m.--I'm hoping we'll be back from the funeral by then.

Once we get back home, we start some extremely hurried preparations for The Big Day. What with my wife's job, she hasn't had much time to clean up the house, so it will be a rush-rush thing for both of us. He will be staying here two days instead of three (the original plan)--but he'll be here, and that's the main thing. We'll all drive down to visit my mom, of course.

I should clue you in on one thing about him. He just turned 31 and is still single--lives with his cat in a suburb north of Detroit. But he has been using a web dating site--and now he is being extremely secretive about what has happened as a result. So if we have a little time, my wife and I will try to get the cat out of the bag. At least a paw.

That--not Christmas morning--could be the most entertaining event of his short visit home.