Here I am. Here we go.

It’s been a while since the last post.

A long long while.

I told myself I should be better about this, but it’s been difficult.

Motivation, gone.

I blame the pandemic and the world change and I don’t have a spot to write anymore.

I usually go out and write, but not anymore. Volcano Teahouse is all take away now with no seats.

I guess I could try and find another place but I’m too habitual to find something else. Besides, it seems that many places are starting to be No Laptops places, to discourage remote workers.

I get it.

It’s a table you are taking up all day and using their internet/wifi when they only order one thing.

Blah.

The world.

But I digress.

I’m up here at Home Home; my yearly pilgrimage home.

I’ve been here for about a week already and got one more week of vacation and then another week of remote work.

It’s the new normal.

It’s been great, being to spend more time at home on the vacation.

But so far, the weather hasn’t been nice. Been cold, cloudy, and rainy.

Not the typical hot and humid summer that I’m used to up here.

I planned on some hikes, especially Mt. Rainer this coming week, but the day that I have reservations, it’s going to cold and possible rain. So, I’m deciding on what else I can do. Who knows?

But what’s been going on since the last time that I wrote…not much, but a lot.

The biggest thing that happened was Gi Fu’s passing in early July.

It was a long time coming but at the same time, it was unexpected.

He’d had health problems for a few years now but he’s always bounced back.

I’m happy that I got to see him one last time before he went. He was still the same kind and gracious bullshitter that he was.

He looked fine and old like one would expect.

I went up July 4th weekend. I originally planned to go to San Diego with Galette to explore and to check up on 7th Uncle.

Kent told me that his siblings were all coming back for the July 4th weekend, so I changed my plans and went up and visited instead.

I left that Saturday morning and the following Monday, he went back to the hospital for breathing issues and on Tuesday he passed.

Unexpected.

Sad.

I drove up that weekend to pay my respects and to help clean up the house and run any errands I can to prepare for the service and to just be there to help in any capacity that I can.

I won’t go into details of everything, but the service happened at the end of July.

Mom came down and we drove up for it.

It was long like any other service/ceremony of this kind. Family and friends all came to pay their respects.

I knew I was going to do a lot of work, running errands, but I didn’t have an official position.

I was charged with handling the money and helping 7th Uncle-in-Law with that job.

But overall, Gifu was laid to rest and he’s no longer in pain.

Next is just being there for the family as they grieve.