January 17, 2016

  • My Fathers Memorial Service

    This week I headed down to Tucson for my fathers memorial service. My father's home church, The Center for Spiritual Living put together an intimate service.
    16Jan_6592 16Jan_6597
    Tucson Center for Spiritual Living

    I spent a day executing some provisions of the will. This included transferring title on Frank's car. Having the right paperwork and a DMV that knew what they were doing smoothed the transfer. As it turns out, I had to transfer it twice. Once into my name, and a second time to the new owner. I timed it, I owned dad's car for about two minutes. In that time I had no mechanicals and never had to add gas.
    16Jan_6577
    Grand Marquee that John Pletsch helped buy. Thank you John.

    Before the service I took in a few sights. A year ago I visited dad and paid a visit to the Gabrielle Giffords memorial. This trip I spend time remembering that tragic event. I also cruised by my father's home.
    16Jan_6581 16Jan_6584
    Giffords Memorial and the home on Roger Road.

    Thursday evening we met for the service. I brought a few pictures, flowers, and a small pot of dad's ashes. Reverend Donald Graves led a thoughtful service. I spent about a week preparing for this and wrote up a detailed eulogy. While we waited for the service to start, I enjoyed hearing all the great stories about Frank's time in Tucson and got more material from dad's friends in attendance. All together, I think I could have talked for half an hour. I took the advice of my minister and that of some expert books to narrow my talk to one theme. I had so much to share but needed to keep it focused.
    16Jan_6591 16Jan_6601 16Jan_6611
    My pictures, Our gathering, Rev Donald and Steve

    On Friday I spent a reflective morning riding the streets of Tucson with fellow cyclist Sol Manion. Follow this link to see the Strava entry. Sol knew why I was in town and pulled out all the stops to make my ride extra special. I showed up with shoes, helmet, kit, and Garmin in hand. Sol had a great bike all outfitted and ready to ride. We made a quick seat height adjustment and hit the road. Sol set the bar pretty high, I hope to return the favor when a friend asks me to join them for a special ride.
    IMG_20160115_094741 IMG_20160115_121251
    Steve with the loaner bike from Sol, and also Sol, my personal guide