I'll tell you what's on my mind

It is bad enough having to do a Sunday-Monday funeral turnaround at church, but to get a couple tons of snow dropped on your sidewalks overnight really takes it over the border into total exhaustion time.
I have two things to be thankful for, first, that we got the new snowblower...that really saves the back of this old feller, and second, that my wife was willing to do a lot of vacuuming to help me out. Otherwise, I really don't think I would have gotten set up in time. There isn't much worse than running around grieving people while you sweat profusely, trying to get the place presentable. ...haven't had to do that yet, but I did have that happen for a wedding once.
Now I'm hiding in my office, writing forum posts and staying out of the way.

mikel.withers wrote:There isn't much worse than running around grieving people while you sweat profusely, trying to get the place presentable. ...haven't had to do that yet, but I did have that happen for a wedding once.

<Insert joke about people grieving at a wedding that I'm not witty enough to come up with>

Have I ever told you my "Funeral Gig" story?

As a vocalists I've sung at a ton of funerals, and actually prefer doing them over weddings. But this would have scarred me for life...(true story confirmed to me by multiple witnesses.)

A girl at the University that I went to was a singer and got a gig to sing at a funeral. She spoke to the widow on the phone-

Widow: I would like it very much if you would sing "Jingle Bells".

Singer: Are... are you sure that's what you want?

Widow: Oh, yes... it was my husband's favorite song and it would honor him so much to have it sung at the service.

So the singer practiced and did all she could to prepare for what would be a very odd experience. Now, for those who haven't done a "funeral gig", you should know that unlike weddings, there is almost never a rehearsal of any kind on location before the service begins. You show up, do it and you're done.
So this girl did her best to be respectful, even melancholy, as she slowly sang--

"Dashing (sigh and dramatic pause)... throughthesnoooooooow..." And on she solemnly went as respectfully as she could.

Well, after the funeral the widow came up to talk to the girl and with tears and fury in her eyes said, "How dare you.... how DARE you sing that ridiculous song and mock the memory of my husband."

It was at that moment the girl, while simultaneously realizing something was very wrong, noticed an odd speech impediment in the widow that she hadn't noticed on the phone.

Singer: Bu... you sah... I thought you wante....

Widow: I said RINGA 'DEM BELLS!! (An old "spiritual", and VERY different from the Christmas season classic.)

Needless to say, the singer was not payed for the gig and is probably emotionally scarred for life.

I'm a bit ashamed to say I chuckled at that...

Then you're in good(or bad?) company 'cuz it used to make me laugh hysterically for years every time I thought of it!! Yikes!