The memorial service happened. I was pretty cynical about the whole thing. First of all, the irony of having a Jesus-this, Jesus-that minister make nice talk about an archaologist whose focus was the peopling of the Americas say, 100,000 years ago.

Then there was all the talk about this saintly figure who walked among us... He was a figure in his field, I hear. Fine. But the man was also somewhat paranoid, always seeing people as back-stabbing him. And that was no saint, this man who was on his fourth marriage. Or who, once-upon-a-time, decided that he'd let my mother "raise the boys". His accomplishments were professional -- not personal.

I dislike the way that the traditions of grief in the US involve smoothing over every wrinkle. When I die, talk some trash about me, folks. Nice guy that I am, I'm still an irritating, dysfunctional bastard in many respects -- and don't you forget it.

Mom, bro, & Z have arrived. Tomorrow is the memorial service. Bro & Z's plane was late, so by the time we got home and everyone had a snack, here we are at 1:30 in the morning.

Tired, and lots of cat herding to do. Not fun.

At least the house is reasonably clean. ...Small solace.

Can I watch some robots now?

I'm back from New Year's at the coast. G & I stayed up til dawn, to see the first sunrise of the year. Though raining a bit, we lit killer sparklers that we've been saving since July 4th, just for this occasion.

On New Year's Eve, I went out to the beach, and along with Chris P. blew fire. Managed to singe my eyebrows a little -- but it was very impressive, nonetheless. At midnight proper, everyone drank champagne -- many out of coffee cups, for lack of enough crystal. Just after midnight, G & I led a ritual in which people wrote down what they wanted to release from 2004, and then the slips of paper were burned in a wood stove.

G brought the PS2 game, "Katamari Damacy", which was a massive hit. Interesting to note that the women were equally as enthralled as the men.

The memorial service for my dad has been scheduled for 1:30pm on Thursday Jan 5 in Tigard. Mom, Bro, and my niece are all flying in on Wednesday. My big job during the next two days will be to turn the studio into "Hotel Scarlet Star".

Carl has left for New York. MM has just announced a bon voyage party, as he'll be heading down to Mexico for 5 or 6 months soon. Sounds like mph won't be moving to Indiana as soon as we'd thought. [Really enjoyed his presentation on "the history of socialism" at the coast!]

I'm keeping busy, which is the way I prefer it, thank you. I like our life (G's and mine), and am eager to get back to it. I don't really want to mope through an indefinite period of bad, elongating the disruption for as long as possible. I've done that before y'see -- and it's just a world of suck.

...I feel like a monster reincarnation of Horatio Alger: a man on the move -- and just sick enough to be totally confident.