My Gramma's spirit carried me through many dark days

I was only too proud to carry her to her final resting place beside my mother and grandpa.

As poor as this family is with strong men who live long enough to serve their responsibilities, it was gratifying that at least six men could be found on this day of Gram's final journey. One son-in-law, one grandson-in-law, three grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. All of us crying.

She was light as a feather.

Ninety-five years of glorious life ... she buried two husbands and half of her children, crimes against nature which nonetheless never daunted her spirit. If not for Gram's insistence that her first-born deserved to lie next to her adoring daddy, my mother would have been lost forever in the wind and sands of the godforsaken Nevada desert. Mom preceded and waited patiently beside her father for twenty-three years to rejoin her own mother. Now I have at least one anchor point in my life where I know I shall always find the core of those I loved: Woodvale Cemetery, 7535 Engle Road, Cleveland, Ohio

Last year on a visit I asked Gram why she was so fond of life on a farm. She sparked up and exclaimed "I was a city girl! I never wanted to live on a farm ... it was your grandpa who wanted to live in the country!"

At her memorial service I said my last goodbye to Gram, and asked her quietly to come with my mom to Virginia to see the homestead and farmhouse I am restoring with Patti in homage to the life they both had lived.

I think next year I will get the chickens.

"This is the farewell kiss, you dog!"

The Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, 28, a correspondent for Al Baghdadia, an independent Iraqi television station, stood up about 12 feet from Mr. Bush and shouted in Arabic: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!” He then threw a shoe at Mr. Bush, who ducked and narrowly avoided it.

As stunned security agents and guards, officials and journalists watched, Mr. Zaidi then threw his other shoe, shouting in Arabic, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” That shoe also narrowly missed Mr. Bush as Prime Minister Maliki stuck a hand in front of the president’s face to help shield him. - The New York Times

From Wikipedia:

In the Arab world: a gesture of contempt

In the Arab world, shoe flinging is a gesture of extreme disrespect. A notable occurrence of this gesture happened in Baghdad, Iraq in 2003. When U.S. forces pulled down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many Iraqi detractors of Hussein threw their shoes at the fallen statue.
This may be an ancient gesture from the Middle East; Psalms 60:10, speaking of some of the traditional enemies of Judah, says that "Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe...." (KJV)
The shoe represents the lowest part of the body (the foot) and displaying or throwing a shoe at someone or something in Arab cultures denotes that the person or thing is "beneath them." Showing the bottom of one's feet or shoes (for example, putting one's feet up on a table or desk) in Arab cultures is considered an extreme insult. Examples include Iraqi citizens smacking torn-down posters of Saddam Hussein with their shoes, and the depiction of President of the United States George H. W. Bush on a tile mosaic of the floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel's lobby, forcing all visitors entering the hotel to walk on Bush's face to enter the hotel.
During President George W. Bush's surprise visit to Iraq in December 2008, an Iraqi reporter threw shoes at him during a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki.

It is also what you scrape dogshit off of.