How very Bill of me ...

"Get out of my head!"  Like all nicely aged love, Bill and I not only knew how to finish each other's sentences but were acquainted with each other's mind and heart.  So many times, we would smile at each other and say, "Get out of my head!" because we had either verbalized the other's thought or handed over the object that was in a thought.  Like a perfect symphony, our thoughts and feelings moved together through the rhythm of life completely in sink.  How could I have doubted in my early days with grief that he was no longer with me?

Last week, I had just enjoyed a breakfast meeting and was heading to my sister's place when that old familiar feeling came over me.  Bill's voice started to speak to me ... "get the car checked".  I really did not want to, I wanted only to get to my sister's place to finish enjoying a wonderful morning.  His voice became louder and more persistent, "You have to get the tires checked."  Just then, I looked up and saw the Kal Tire sign beckoning me - *groan* ....  I turned in and as so many times before, whispered, "There, you happy now?"  After a long wait, I am informed that my tires were not punctured, explaining the slow leak,  but required more extensive work ...  okay, the back wheel was about to come off!  Thank you Bill.

One week later, proof of his influence is again offered.  I came home late from work only to find the house quite cold.  Going through his moves, I check the thermostat, open the basement door and listened.  Nope, the furnace is not reacting.  I walked around the house thinking, "What now?"  I called my sister who called her son.  He came over and started fiddling with the furnace.  I went downstairs and he informs me that he suspected a part was defective - a costly part.  He starts to itemize my options, all the while my head is filled with Bill's response, "We never were about 'band-aid' solutions."  My mind raced through the various contingency funds and landed on the little stash I had put aside for his tombstone.  My heart was saying, "No not again!" and my head was saying, "But I'm not going anywhere.  I am too practical ..."  I finish his sentence and give the go ahead to order the new furnace.

I get the final total yesterday morning, drive in my now safe car to the bank and pulled the money for the new furnace.  My heart sinking at the thought of another winter without his tombstone.  Getting home at the end of the day, I open the door to find that the house was quite toasty!  The heat had been running all day. *groan*  Frustrated at first, Bill's influence continues to speak to me.  Slowly but surely, I begin to realize that the furnace was working but it was not stopping.  It continues to pump heat ... *double groan*  How long has it been running?  Then my rationale continues - the furnace is old, the insurance would not pay if something happened due to it finally dying on those cold winter days, no more worries about the furnace through the whole winter, and so on and so on.  Okay Bill, I hear you!  I share all of this with my niece as they were downstairs ripping out the old and installing the new.  She looks at me with a twinkle in her eye and says, "How very Uncle Bill of you!"