As I headed down a main street, I saw a man in the yard with a pit bull and it made me think of my aunt Carolyn's boyfriend who visited once and spotted this young man with a pit bull and he had a gut feeling that the dog was being used for fighting.
All that to say, I'm amazed by triggers. Pit bull = memories of my aunt.
Chiquita wanted to purchase a headstone for her mom and they were having a Memorial Day sale. I didn't know that they did that at the cemetery; there was also a drawing for a gift card.
When I stopped by one of the stores earlier, it registered that the flowers were more expensive and then I remembered -- Memorial Day. I have mixed emotions anyway. I think real flowers should be for the living.
Someone had placed a flag at my father's grave. Thought about my grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousin who are in the cemetery and that line from Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank Redemption -- Get busy living or get busy dying -- went through my head.
Seeing the flag at my father's grave made me remember a story that he told me about military life at that time and now Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around is also in my head.
On the way back, we rode down the street where I grew up, partially, then we headed to a cousin's house. I don't know this cousin that well but when I looked at her, I kept thinking my grandfather's niece. On the ride back to get my car, Chiquita mentioned how my aunt Al liked to joke that my father would do anything for you except give you money. Chiquita remembered how my father would take her back and forth to college but warned her that he wasn't going to keep transporting her trove of shoes.
I keep thinking about this woman at the cemetery. She had a lot of paraphernalia around her at a grave and she was seated on the grounded as if she intended to set up camp. Chiquita asked her if she was okay and she said that she was all right.
