💾 Archived View for tilde.club › ~winter › gemlog › 2024 › 11-11.gmi captured on 2024-12-17 at 11:09:45. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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We've had company for the weekend, my in-laws coming in Friday afternoon as I was finishing work. They often come here for long weekends, or we go there, depending on whose turn it is, and if they have other things they want to do in the city. It's about a three hour drive.
It's low key because all of us are low key. A house full of homebodies. We typically play games, and we've been playing lots of games this weekend, cards and board games being our usual time-passing activity when there isn't a hockey or football game my father-in-law wants to watch.
Last night we had a couple of other friends over as well, for supper and beer and some easy games. I made a massive pot of mac and cheese in the instant pot, we toasted up a loaf of garlic bread, made a big bowl of coleslaw; there was lots of beer, and cocktails, and after supper, a pot of strong tea.
We played 31 with six people - I was out early - and then after that, Yahtzee. Two games, as per tradition. During the first game, I got a call, the phone reading "Mum and Dad". I excused myself, headed downstairs. At the current moment, everything in the family is through the lens of my cousin's funeral.
It was mostly just an update call with no updates, which, under the circumstances, is nice to have. Good to know that someone's thinking of me, even when I have been, when I continue to be, geographically removed from basically everyone. Fifteen hundred miles at the closest. Anyway: confirmation of the funeral date, no word on the online option yet. I've talked with work and will take the day off if there's an online option. Various family either able to attend, or not. The Canadian family in no way expected. My understanding that the ceremony will mostly be immediate family and friends, with a few aunts and uncles and cousins attending.
The process getting easier to talk about, that detached way we reference the lives of the dead. Then my dad and I discussed Christmas - he didn't think they could come out - and the possibility of them coming out in the spring. It has, he agreed ruefully, been a while. Our older dog will be 14 next year. The last time they were out, he would've been five.
A few more minutes of talking, then the usual "give my love to..." I headed upstairs. My partner had played my Yahtzee card for me. I didn't win the first game. We started the next game. I didn't win the second. That's all right. The company's the thing. I checked the teapot. A little left. I topped up my cup of tea and sat down to play.