Days like yesterday

We knew it was going to be a good day when we visited our Pop's grave and the wind actually stopped for a minute. We took this to mean he was listening, so we told him we'd try to find more God or meaning or something and try to live right.

We fist pumped the ground and continued to Gram's.

We were the first to get there. We gave our secret handshake to our uncle, and we hugged Gram. We immediately ate us some cheese and crackers and immediately thought of Pop, since "Cheese and Crackers" was about as close as he got to using cuss words back in the day.

Family arrived one by one, and it was a small gathering, considering two things, the number of relatives we have, and the sheer mass of some of them. But that's another story for another day.

It was just one of those days, though, when things. Just. Feel. Right. We hate saying/writing/thinking this, normally, because the other shoe is forever dangling over our head. But in this case, we think it's OK.

The backyard was clean, and Gram had a new basketball hoop up for our 8-year-old cousin. It was eight feet, which meant Ol' Man Dunk went all kinds of crazy up in that beeyatch.

We played HORSE with Old Man Senior and the li'l sis, and we took great joy in taking the li'l sis out quickly. "HA! You a HO!" never gets old. Nor does, "HA! You a hooah! HAH!"

We weren't thinking about it at the time, this swishing shots back and forth with our old man. He's a lefty and pretty much makes shots whenever he wants. We opted for the unconventional. Nothing says basketball like sitting on top of a parked car and draining a 12-footer.

On an eight-foot rim. We know.

But that's not the point.

The point is yesterday was perfect. From shaking hands post Horse victory, to hugging Gram goodbye, to going back to Pop to place flowers.

Speaking of, Pop said the best prayers before every meal.

This always included the way he pronounced food the old coal region way. Gram saved all his written prayers, and today's talked about remembering where you came from and appreciating where you are so that tomorrow, well, it was something about embracing a golden future.

We were, dare we say it, optimistic for the first time in a long time.

We learned that our 8-year-old cousin only hits the ball when there's a payoff involved ("Five bucks if you hit cousin Old Man Snap"). If that's not a metaphor for today's pro athlete, we don't know what is.

We learned that Gram loves her some old lady jokes, and that one of our uncles is below 300 lbs., and the other is down to 340 (see? massive).

Most of all, we learned that sometimes it's OK to appreciate where you've been in order to really appreciate where you are and where you're going.

We know. Most of you knew all that. But whatever. We're feeling it right now.

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Currently listening to: I'm Waiting for the Day (Beach Boys).