Goodbye John

Today we said our final good-byes to Uncle John.

During my long work week, I found out that my Uncle passed away (Tuesday). I knew from discussions with my mom, asking for regular updates on how everyone in the family is doing, that Uncle John was having his fair share of medical issues over the past five or so years. Even though his health was poor, his passing took us by surprise.

The funeral was this morning. As funerals go, it was phenomenal. The kind of funeral that you might see written for the big screen - the kind people hope to have for themselves... Hannah, the voice of the Meseroll's, delivered a beautiful recounting of John's life and what he meant to all of us. There were many, many laughs to be had. Tears too. Songs were sung. Pictures viewed. Quite a few people stood and shared what Uncle John meant to them, which for me correlated directly into what he meant to me.

The procession to the cemetery was lead by over 20 Harley Davidson's, in which his daughter Jeanette road with her boyfriend on her dad's bike. She was joined by Eric, John's nephew who road his Harley. Traffic voluntarily stopped as we drove by. People in downtown Gahanna walking along the streets stopped and paid their respects as well. One of the two motorcycle escorts stopped at the entrance to the cemetery and saluted as we passed.

I couldn't have, or would have asked for anything more. It was a beautiful way to close the final chapter of John Meseroll, beloved father, brother, uncle and friend. While this is the final chapter this book stands no chance of collecting dust any time soon. This man will be remembered for a long time to come.

R.I.P. John Thomas Meseroll (1950-2009)

A Long Work Week

This has been a long week. Granted it counted the same 7 days that all of the weeks before it have - but this one felt a lot longer than normal. It started with computer problems. I work from home and the company I work for has all but pulled out of Columbus, so getting support means a) figuring it out myself - I'm only computer literate enough to be annoying, or b) call a 1-800 number and have someone try to trouble shoot - which usually means "have you rebooted your machine yet?". My new-ish Lenovo laptop seemed to be incompatable with our companies systems (why we use/distribute them I have no idea?). After a miscue with the tech support line failing to understand when to call me, I finally was put in touch with an I.T. staff member in who told me my options were to pay for a new laptop (from my team budget - yeah right), get another T-61 which most likely will run into the same problems (why???) or step back to a T-60 which is inferior spec wise. Well, logic dictated that my only choice was C. So after missing the first possible UPS pick-up, IT finally put my new machine together and shipped it out. I lost 3 1/2 days of productivity because I work remotely... and I feel like I went from a new Camero to your dad's Buick as far as work computers go. Yea work... Yea Windows Machines...