An unusual story has appeared in the local newspaper during the last couple of weeks. While not unprecedented, it is unusual, and although it's not fumy, it is difficult to avoid making some macabre jokes. But I'll try. It all started with a Sunday News story on January 27. The family of a man who died the previous month was having a hard time getting his death certificate and ashes from the mortuary. His obit had not appeared, so his mother had it printed at her own expense. The certificate and ashes finally turned up three weeks later. Other similar stories turned up – loss of ashes, obits not printed, Social Security not notified, etc. In one case a family ordered one large urn and four small ones for their loved one's ashes. Finally the large urn arrived, but the small ones remained on backorder. When the family went to pick up the large urn, the funeral director waved a baggy with the remaining ashes at them, and asked if they wanted him to keep them until the oth...
My alarm clock goes off every morning at eight, except for the few times when I have a breakfast date. Usually I wake up about an hour before that, or at least I partly wake up. It is important that I remain in a “not quite awake but not quite asleep” state, because I consider that time as the germination period for whatever seeds happen to have blown into my head.