On sunday I got a call from my mom on my cell phone, so I called her back on my break. My grandfather had just died that morning. I know he wasn't doing well, not for the last several years. Long story short, he was epileptic, and the medications they used back in the day were pretty harsh, and prolonged exposure combined with what they had him on up untill recently gave him symptoms of alzheimers. Mercifully, he went peacefully in his sleep, at the end of a long life, with a large family, and I don't think anyone can honestly hope to do better than that, and wherever he is now, I'm sure he's with his wife again after over 20 years. He was a rock, peaceful and dependable, with a quick wit and a keen mind, of the card-counting variety. I remember being awed by him as a kid when I heard he had been escorted out of various casinos in Reno for winning too much.

Right away, I started recollecting the good times I'd had with him. I shared a few of them at his funeral on thursday, but this one I didn't mention, instead I saved it for my blog. For those of you who haven't caught on, I am a Lego fiend, and I have been since I was a kid. I remember one birthday (could have been christmas, but I'm pretty sure it was my birthday), Grandpa gave me this set:



I hadn't seen any grey space sets in the stores in a long while, and it knocked my socks off that he'd found one. To this day it remains one of my favourites of classic space. As I finished my shift on sunday, I decided to rebuild it in new colours as a tribute. I got Jenn to pick up a pie (Grandpa loved pies, especially lemon meringue with a cup of tea), and after desert that night I assembled this little vignette:



I call it Georgebot (click on the picture to see a small gallery of images). My grandpa was a blackjack player, and had a mind boggling hat collection. So here we see Georgebot, wearing his fanciest hat, with the ace of hearts on the table, and another card not yet flipped. Will it be a ten, or a face card? Will lady luck smile on Georgebot one last time and give him a blackjack? Is luck even a factor, or has he counted the deck again? Let's all wish him the best of luck anyway.

As a tribute to the man he was and the impact he had on my family's lives, a vignette is pretty pathetic. But as a whimsical tribute to the fun I had with him when I was younger, I think this works just fine. Rest in peace, Grandpa.