Colin and Haruo Both Learn Stuff

Colin Johansson-Chikamori was a bright young toddler who appeared to be very tactile as far as learning things was concerned. He worked on his blocks (presumably for handiness) and xylophone (for music). And he spent a lot of time with them too. At least he was learning something and that fact reassured Colin's parents.

While Braden tended to the laundry, poor Greta had potty cleanup duty. Needless to say, Greta wasn't too impressed at having to do the potty cleanup. After all, despite the fact that laundry was a lot more laborious; it didn't make her want to vomit up her breakfast due to the odor.

And if she didn't already know what she was feeding Colin; she would have thought that he'd been eating stuff that was listed on the World Health Organization's list of biological weapons because man, what came out his hind end could incapacitate a whale (and whales are reputedly without olfactory organs)

After bringing Colin over to his xylophone to play some more, she went over and started doing some writing on the computer. After all, she did need to work on a political memoir.

Haruo and River worked on their paintings.

...while Braden fed Colin.

Then Colin was brought back upstairs and plunked down in front of the xylophone again so that he could smack it with the mallet and make all sorts of sounds that amused him to no end.

Greta continued her political memoir and got a few more simoleons as a result of sending in some more of her chapters. She was sure that it would be a hit for those up and coming political staffers who wanted to know what it was like to play the political game.

Haruo on the other hand went down to go take care of some space rock blocks, however he found out that breaking space rocks after a long hiatus was probably NOT the best thing to start off with so he went back to breaking concrete blocks.

Evidently he had much better luck with THOSE blocks.

Life Without Yasunobu

It just so happened that Braden and Greta didn't happen to get any sleep that night because roughly about two in the morning, the little one inside Greta just decided to give poor Greta's bladder a roundhouse kick. Needless to say, that didn't go over well and the labour pains started. "Oh no..." Greta moaned as she looked over at Braden, "The baby's coming." Well, Braden freaked out.

Greta headed off to the hospital, her husband would be headed off there as soon as he got himself together. Which luckily for him wasn't long, as he would be in serious pain if he missed the birth. Greta would not take kindly to that.

Second births allegedly did not take as long as first births and well, it wasn't more than about six hours later that Greta gave birth. After being checked over and assessed that she was good to go, she was allowed to sign herself out of the hospital and head for home.

When she got home, she put the little one to sleep and well, since she was hungry after all those exertions she and Braden had something to eat. Good thing there was something that all they had to do was warm up.

As the sun came up, Braden went out to deal with the honey collection from the hives. Needless to say, one bee wasn't too particularly pleased with being disturbed and well. stung him. That hurt

Greta enjoyed peering out the window at the scenery outside. Cape Garner Island was one of the most beautiful islands with a lot of wildlife and scenery and being able to enjoy the solitude of the morning was relaxing.

River spent some time that morning reading. She oft wondered how time flew and that her kids were grown up and having kids of their own. But she also realized that even though her and Haruo had raised their kids to adult hood they could still take part in the raising of their grandchildren.

River also realized that she still was selling paintings; one even to her step-sister; Caitlin.

There was still so much to do and River wouldn't quietly go into a rocking chair; she still had so much to accomplish in life.

Her son, Braden went downstairs and enjoyed his martial arts practice as he had mastered his martial arts moves.

Greta also taught her son how to walk.

Life without Yasunobu went on...and well, it certainly wasn't easy for Haruo but he kept going. After all, his family needed him and he was not about to disappoint his own family - he was the patriarch of the family, after all now, after Yasunobu had passed away.

But it was nice once in a while to let the responsibilities slide for a little while and have some fun playing the guitar. Everything had pretty much passed to him when Yasunobu had passed away. All the stuff that was cluttering up Yasunobu's inventory was now in Haruo's and he had a tough time deciding whether to let go of some of the items or to keep it for posterity's sake. Well, he chose to hang on to the majority of it... after all, the personal inventory was useful.

Yasunobu's Wake

Yasunobu had always wanted his descendants to not mourn his passing. However it was with heavy hearts that the family gathered for the wake.

Some of the great-grandchildren had homework to do so they set about doing it while the wake was going on.

There were plenty of extended family members in the family assembled; the Wainright-Steels and the Chikamoris; all of them.

After-all, the patriarch of the family had been much loved by all of his family and extended family. So thus he was mourned at his passing, but his life was also celebrated as well. The only two who weren't there were Haruo and River and they had gone out to eat and would be back later. The rest of the family didn't resent that as out of all of them, their parents had known Yasunobu best and were aching with loss so their private time was respected. So the rest spent the time taking advantage of the recreational items in the house; whether it be the ping-pong or the pool table.

At some point, one of the grandchildren moved Yasunobu's portrait from behind the piano to above the stereo and turned on the classical music station. It probably wasn't their favorite station to listen to, but they put it on out of respect to Yasunobu's musical tastes.

Eventually the wake wound down as Haruo and River returned from their meal at the Bistro. Greta decided to take a shower and ended up triggering a shower trap that was left by one of the kids. Thank you very much, kiddo. She certainly wasn't happy about the purple hair.

Nope, she was not happy about it at all...

Farewell; My Father

Mornings were always early for the Chikamori family. According to the Canadian Sleep Society (Yes, it's an actual organization dedicated to improving sleep for all Canadians through: support for research, promotion of high quality clinical care, education of professionals and the public, and advocacy for sleep and sleep disorders medicine), getting a full 7-8 hrs of sleep was necessary to be sufficiently well-rested and ready to attack the day. After all, if one didn't sleep well, one didn't perform very well the next day. Greta was definitely a morning person, since she was pretty much the first person up in the morning.

And then of course, the later risers trickled into the kitchen; getting their food and sitting down at the dining room table.

Since this was the weekend, Greta and Braden took some time to themselves.

...and Haruo spent time at the piano...practicing. After all one had to keep one's fingers limber if one wanted to play Bach and other composers.

He also took some time to drive some golf balls into the inlet. You know, Haruo, that's going to get rather expensive. You know just how much Titleist balls cost nowadays? A pack of 12 Pro V1 (recycled) balls ends up costing §25.00. New ones are triple the cost. I doubt belugas want to take up golf.

Yasunobu was enjoying a book...when all of a sudden something didn't seem right. It seemed as though he couldn't think and his vision went hazy...

He blinked for a moment to try to clear his vision, but it didn't work, so he got out of his chair...

It seemed as though his heart skipped several beats...and he stared at the wall...across from him; in realization...that his time was over.

There wasn't time for horror or dismay. It was that quick.

He barely heard the gasps of horror from his daughter-in-law and grand-daughter-in-law...as he floated...above the floor in his now ethereal form.

Yasunobu realized that he'd lived a long life and he was unfazed to meet Grim; there was no protest, there was no begging. He shook Grim's hand...and leapt into the urn. He'd be going to be with Susan.

Haruo was too late to see his father disappear...he ended up seeing Grim and the urn. He was absolutely heart-broken.

River was devastated too. Her father-in-law was one of the sweetest people that she'd ever known; he was the one that accepted her whole-heartedly into the family and now he was gone. It was with solemn sorrow that they laid him later on that day to his final rest.

From now on...Haruo wouldn't be able to consult his father any longer. Any problems that he had, he would have to tackle on his own.

...and his path was his now...to walk alone with his wife and his descendants by his side. He was now the "patriarch" of the family; the "oldest and the wise one"...the one who others would lay their problems at his feet and hope that he could solve them. And...that was a scary realization.

...and it was then that he realized that the torch had truly been passed down to him...and he wasn't sure if he was ready to hold that torch yet...but well...there was no choice in the matter. Such was the path of life.