In memoriam of Dad, or, grief therapy with Home Depot

So after I wrote the post about being all "meh", I laid down in bed to read and realized that Friday (today) would be/is twelve years since Dad died.  The subconscious is a strange and strong thing.  After spending my November and December working like hell on the office party, then traveling/moving/skiing for a week and a half into January, I haven't really had the chance to rest like I usually do, and January 16th snuck up on me in a way that it usually doesn't.

So anyway, I went to sleep and had a weird dream.  Well, it wasn't that weird.  But it was interesting.

It was a commercial.  Seriously, a commercial.  The camera, as it were, was panning over a town just after a rainstorm.  It becamse apparent from the voiceover and the appearance of the houses that it was New Orleans after Katrina.  That Home Depot music was playing as the camera flew over the little neighborhood.  You know the music from the commercials; if I started humming it right now, you'd know it.  And the voiceover--the same voiceover that does all the Home Depot commercials--was talking about how you can fix things up and build stuff, make your dreams come true.  It panned over a beautiful little grey cottage with white trim and a dark grey roof, and the voiceover said, "You can repair what was damaged..."

And then it panned/flew just beyond the cottage to the lot next door, at which the home had obviously been completely destroyed, and the foundations had been filled in with concrete, scored appropriately, and two little cabana/sheds constructed on it.  The voiceover then said, "...or make new memories when what was is no more."

"...you can do it, we can help."

Then I woke up.

Newt B. Goode: October 5, 1946-January 16, 1997