now different lives i lead, my body lives on lead

I'm leaving for Colorado tomorrow, so today was mostly about preparing to go. But first, I spent a couple of hours with my mom - we drove to a couple of cemeteries (three, to be precise) to pick up Memorial Day grave decorations. This was a journey of almost sixty miles, mostly on paved roads, but also mostly through areas of the county that are practically devoid of people.

The last cemetery is one of my favorites - it's in a town called Confidence that is now no longer a town, but is instead a cemetery and a loose collection of houses. The Confidence cemetery is split into an old cemetery and a new cemetery - the graves my mom visits are all in the old side, and she is one of the last people who decorates anything on that side. The graves there are seriously old, including some of people born in the 1700s; a bunch of interesting and bizarre names; many many small children and young wives; and my mom's father's ancestors, resting among giant old trees in a cemetery where the driveway no longer exists and a simple rusted chain holds the gate shut.

So, it was a nice tour of the backroads of the county, even if it sprinkled a bit as we drove around. We also visited the graves of my mom's mom, my brother-in-law, a couple of my mom's aunts and uncles, and some of my grandmother's other ancestors...all in all, it was a nice way to end this edition of #smalltownlife.

Then we came home, I was supremely lazy for a couple of hours, and then I packed everything and loaded my car so I can get out of here early tomorrow. We ended the day with a delightful supper (bratwurst, fried potatoes, and baked beans). Then we played Ticket to Ride, and my mom won, which she was v. excited about (and I was excited for her, especially since it meant that [censored] didn't win). I ended the evening sorting through some boxes of old photos that Aunt Kathy had delivered - Uncle Mark had boxes and boxes of photos in his shed, and these were all related to our side of the family, so now they're here. [censored] and I transferred the photos (and possibly some hundred-year-old dust) into fresh boxes, and sorting through them more thoroughly will be a major project for an upcoming visit.

But that's the future - for now I really need to sleep so that I can be refreshed and ready to hit the road tomorrow. Goodnight!