Dale-Time

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks.

First off, my wife and I took our annual vacation to Mexico. It was a great break for us. Quiet, sunny, relaxing and very much needed. I read two books, the new Clive Cusler adventure staring his Dirk Pitt character. (kind of like Indiana Jones meets Sea Hunt) and Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” ( he’s the author of the DaVinci Code). It was good to wrap my mind around something other than work.  I don’t take a whole lot of time off when I’m home because as the big cheese (as some of my staff like to call me) I tend to be at work more than I really need to be. Which was proved by the fact my staff did a great job taking care of everything while I was gone. I even missed the Snow-pocalypse of 2011. And I’ll have you know the snow burner kept right up with the over 2 feet of snow that fell over two days.

Second, it’s been a busy year at the funeral home so far. When I tell people that, the typical response is “that’s good for you but not so good for the people”. That’s the dilemma we funeral people have with talking about our business. Some people get the fact that it is a business and it’s important that we have enough activity to keep the doors open and pay the bills and our staff. And there will always be people who look at us as merchants of death, who take advantage of people in their moment of grief. The fact is 95% of all people in funeral service are very caring, good folks who take care of the people that call on them as if they were their best friend. Unfortunately the other 5% can be real bad folks, who are only interested in money. And somehow the press always finds those folks and portrays all of us like those 5%. Such is life. Good news doesn’t sell papers.

Third is I’ve had a couple of medical issues to deal with. One of my staff became terribly ill while at work. He started shaking uncontrollably, could hardly talk and wasn’t breathing right. We called the ambulance. They were there in minutes and got him to the hospital. It turned out to be an infection in his kidneys that had spread to his blood. He is 75 years old and one of those guys who says “I’ll be fine”. He’s OK, but it scared the crap out of all of us.

Then a few days later, my wife, Jodi, while giving a eulogy at her former mother-in-laws funeral, out of town, had a massive migraine attack (she’d never had one before). She got violently ill, they called the ambulance, went to the small town hospital emergency room, got marginal care but eventually got some drugs into her and calmed things down a bit. Luckily her son was with her while I drove 2 hours to be with her. After a few tests they decided it wasn’t a stroke and I drove her home. I played caretaker for the next few days, made another trip to the emergency room for more drugs and tried to keep her off the phone. I figure it was all stress related. Jodi is always juggling a dozen different projects and I think one of them hit her in the head. I hope this lets her know she can’t do it all and slows down a little (fat chance).

On top of all of that, the 3 rooftop furnaces at my Grand Haven branch are all taking a crap and they tell me I need to replace them all very soon. That’s 20 grand I don’t have. Oh well, It’s always something.

I’m Dale Clock. Thanks for listening.