Marcia and I have been in guadalajara for the past 4 days. We went up to the GDL to go to a construction expo called Contru05. We went to find sources for sinks, air-conditioners, appliances, flooring, handcrafts, furniture, pool equipment, parking garage gates, and basically anything having to do with putting together a medium sized housing development. I was also on the look out for smart pre-fabrication companies, people that were doing something different then your average office on wheels. I am very interested in modern pre-fab houses in mexico. The expo was a total bust! The website said there were over 2000 exhibitors. I think more like 200. and they were organized mainly into 2 groups: heavy machinery - like the machines they use to build dams and the second group was for like housing development companies (like us) who were trying to sell their houses to people at the convention. but it was a bit of a joke, because I’d say 90% of the visitors were students from the engineering school nearby. oh well.
So we got back today and I checked my vonage voice messages, to hear from my sister that my grandfather, Mr. Edmund B. Fladung Jr (my namesake) had passed away yesterday. He knew his time was coming and he had said as much in a letter to my cousin wendy. He was on old guy and had been through many surgeries to correct the tolls that age leaves on a man. He was ready to go and got to go out to dinner the night before, so he went out in style. No long drawn out hospital battle. No nurses. just family nearby. and a peaceful sleep. He was good man. we never agreed on politics, but that never stopped us from loving each other. I was a lazy grandson, never cashing his birthday and xmas checks, not out of some lack of appreciation but rather just a nasty habit of habitually losing said checks. This caused him a little grief towards me and he let me know in no uncertain terms, every year at tax time, when Uncle Mike would do his taxes and Mike would notice that two checks from the past year had not be cashed in grand dad’s bank account. and veritably the paper trail would lead back to me.
anyways…
Marcia and I are going back to the east coast, tomorrow, for the funeral on tuesday. We’ve decided that instead of just me going back for a few days and wasting all that money, that it would be nice for both of us to go back and stay a week or so. Marcia will most likely be meeting my dad’s entire family in Virginia (the funeral) and a good portion of my mom’s when we go back up to NYC for Labor Day weekend. It might be a wee bit too much for her, but I know they’ll all adore Marcia. It’s hard not to. she’s such a beautiful woman, inside and out. We don’t have any solid plans yet, but we’ve been brewing a plan with my sister, Beth, to take a side trip to Ocean City, Maryland, where my grandparents lived. My aunt is giving away all the things in their house, and we thought it might be nice to spend a few days in OC, see the old house and hit the beach and boardwalk. sounds like fun to me.
my condolences about your grandfather. hope you guys have a good & safe trip.