grandma was laid to rest on 25 jun, next to her soul mate shyrl. it didn't really hit me until i saw our surname on the headstone...i took off my insignia, collar brass, specialty badge, ribbons, nametag, and left them with my hat upon her casket. it was a small tribute to a great woman, one who was always proud of me and what it is that i do.

now i have no more grandparents. the last one has gone on to something better.

i made it back from the funeral on saturday. mom and i actually flew together (she got off in pheonix to see kelly and aaron) in that flying cattle car that southwest calls a 737. i had time to go outside at sky harbor (it was a whopping 105 degrees) and see my newest niece, brecken. i think that i caught something nasty on the plane, because i feel like hammered dog poo.

it was great to see maddie today, even if i was a little out of it. she is so big and so smart, it seems like yesterday i was afraid to pick her up she was so tiny...now she's bringing her sick daddie blankets and stroking my hair. it's going too fast.

i miss my grandma.

the matriarch of the bolander clan, my grandmother, passed away in the early evening of the 21st of june, 2004. she lived a long, fruitful, prosperous life. when she left us, she was a grandmother 12 times and had 21 great-grandchildren.

maddie and i visited her a year and a half ago, and i remember a hale, vital woman who, while old, was still as spry and feisty as ever. my deepest regret is that i could not get home in time to hold her hand and say goodbye while she still drew breath. i'm getting on a plane to bear her to her final rest, and say my last goodbye.

go then, granma, there are other worlds than this.

at the prompting of my captain (oh captain, my captain...), i've decided to actually collate and post a few of my "laws" of the universe - murphy was an optomist. bolander's laws is of the ghey, so we've got "bo's maxims". here we go.

1 - "the attractive, well put together females of the world always think that they're fat and ugly. the fat and ugly ones think that they have a license to wear spandex."

2 - "the water exists in the glass at the median level."

3 - "there is nothing you can do to a computer (short of dunking it in water) that i can't fix."

4 - "ss,dd"

5 - "a butterbar is an e-1 with a college degree"

6 - "the only thing that is truly ours is time, and the only truly important thing is friends and family. if you don't invest the former in the latter, you'll find yourself at the end of life with neither."

7 - "you can shut your mouth, or i can gouge out your eye with this fork. take your pick. want some pasta?"

8 - "the only thing i have to do is stay white and die. everything else is optional."

9 - "shut your yapper"

i'll add more as they come to me...

60 years ago today, the men of my grandfather's generation came ashore to free fortress europe and save the world. most people of my generation have no understanding of what that means. i do. remember this day as a turning point in world history - the day we were delivered from evil by the blood and tears of these men...