"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."

- Henry David Thoreau

After a lovely week together, my aunt and uncle are flying back to Michigan tomorrow morning. It will be an early start, so I'm off to get a few hours of shut-eye before I drive them out to the airport.

We had a big family dinner at my sister's, they took in the jazz festival and went to see the Tall Ships. The brothers went fishing in the Atlantic while the wives went shopping, then Mom had a smaller dinner here so Gram could spend time with them among less commotion. Ten of us went to dinner last night so we could listen to my local uncle play jazz with a regular gig he's got in Halifax with the Chalmers Doane quartet. Tonight they're sleeping over at our place and we had a great visit.

In the hilarious category: my uncles and my aunt went to visit Dad's grave this afternoon. Keep in mind that as Dad's urn was interred and we were all at the graveside, a powerful wind whipped over us from Bedford Basin the whole time, as though Dad were saying goodbye through the elements. Well, this afternoon, no sooner had my uncle said, "Well Norm, we've come to say goodbye," when a crack of lightening and a clap of thunder answered him. I guess my dad likes a dramatic gesture!