Happy St. Bryan's Day!!! Have a Lemon!

Stayed up ridiculously late last night. For me, that was about 2:45 am. Part of me thinks it's because I wanted to let my wife get a few solid hours sleep before I lay down next to her and snore her awake. I wish I knew how to fix it - it bothers me when, like today, I wake up and she and her pillow are gone, downstairs on the couch. She says she's amazed sometimes that I don't wake myself up with my snoring.

Well, one of the drawbacks to having such a big nose, I suppose. Still, I think I'll take the couch tonight and let her get some uninterrupted sleep.

The real reason I didn't want to go to bed is likely because I didn't want today to start.

Took the girls up to see Bryan's grave today. Had to cut the trip short because the 3 year old needed a potty, and there wasn't one at the cemetery. But we got to say hi to Bryan and walk around, grabbing some pictures.



Me and Bryan in the first pic, my two eldest daughters in the second pic. Wifey doesn't want her pic online ever, so I won't post a pic of her, but she was there, as was my sweet, full-bladdered 3 year old.



This was 1999, I believe, not long before Bryan died.

He was/is truly a good guy. I'm sure whatever he's doing right now, he has that smile on his face.

I wondered if I would write something today about the day he died, but I don't think I'm going to. It was devastating, of course, but I think I'd rather just rejoice in the memory of him alive rather than the day he left.

I picked the lemons today.



Who would have thought so many lemons could come off such a small bush. Hey, whatever happened to the idea of a "lemon tree"? Why do we have a lemon bush? I don't get it. Is it still technically a tree, but is stunted or something? I tell ya, the small size does nothing to limit the bushels of lemons it produces (pardon the pun).

What do the lemons have to do with my brother Bryan? Well, nothing, I guess... unless you go with the "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" angle, but that's kind of corny.

• Garments Of Praise by Robin Mark

More Robin Mark music on iLike

The Revival In Belfast worship album was what Bryan and I listened to the entire time we were at the conference in the days before he died. We went up to LA on Thursday the 13th of Jan and drove back Saturday the 15th, in the afternoon. We listened to the CD on the way up, the entire time we were up there, and the entire trip home. I'm pretty sure he died within an hour of the time he dropped me off that day. He could have had his seizure at any time in the previous 3 days and I would have been there to help him, but no, he had to wait until he was alone, lol. Punk.

So any song from the album reminds me strongly of Bryan and that trip. We played The Garments of Praise at his funeral service. And Jesus, All For Jesus at the graveside.

So much for not writing anything about the day he died...

Well, tomorrow is another day.