our friend john passed away on tuesday evening. mercifully, his decline was swift, but it was still tough to take. brian had spent the night with him monday night, and knew it wouldn't be much longer for him. that evening, most of his friends as well as his immediate family were at the village harmony concert in town to support and listen to his daughter, claire, sing with a group of very talented teenaged singers. but when john's sister, susan, got a call on her cell phone partway through, and lisa, aaron, claire and susan ran out after the song ended, we all knew what had happened. it was so incredibly heart breaking to see them run out of the church and to their car (i had been standing outside with rory). the looks on their faces was harder to take than knowing what it all meant.

as if dealing with that wasn't enough, we also had a missing dog to try and find. pearl and luna had taken themselves for a walk that day, and by the time we got home from the concert (around 8 or 8:30), they still weren't back. then we get a call from laurie saying that a motorist found luna on highway 89 and brought her to the police station (she was okay), but no one knew where pearl was. brian went out to look for her right away, but couldn't find her. it was a restless night, hoping that pearly was okay while trying to deal with the death of a good friend. brian went out the wednesday morning and ended up finding pearl in laurie and michael's 'neighborhood'. except for a claw that looked like it was torn off and a protective coating of mud, she was fine. finding her relieved some anxiety.

yesterday evening, we went to a gathering of frineds at john and lisa's house. it was a little weird to be there and know that john would just appear at any moment, but it was nice to gather together for him. you could talk about him or not talk about him, it made no difference. quite a few people were recalling his quick wit (he made MANY jokes about his cancer in the last few months), and the fact that he liked to drink good champagne, ride his lawn tractor around, bbq, bike, etc etc etc.

after that, we went ahead with a planned dinner out with the whole family. we ate at a lovely restaurant, cafe buon gustaio, that brian and i have been wanting to try. i think it was just what every one needed-get out, let your hair down a little, eat good food, go to bed exhausted and full.

the day may have started out in a bad way, but by the end, we felt a lot better.