Breaking news! Hold the presses!
I just heard from my brother that my dad uncharacteristically voted for a Republican! WOW! Unusual day of voting in these parts!
Category: Family (page 2 of 2)
My weeks are no different than most of yours, I’m pretty sure, but this one has been a killer already, and there’s more to come…
- Sunday, usual Sunday stuff, late home, late to bed
- Monday, out of the house at 4:55 a.m. The Y, some running around Monday stuff, meeting from 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Home late.
- Today, out of the house at 4:55 a.m. again. The Y, some church stuff, family stuff, etc.
- Tomorrow, out of the house at 3:00 a.m., on the road to Statesboro, Georgia, 240+ miles of the most boring interstate you can imagine. “The Boy’s” surgery at 8:00 a.m. or so. Back home tomorrow night some time.
- Thursday, the whole thing starts again, dark and early…
I’ll let you know when I meet myself…
It’s been a pretty good couple of days – that pesky “another year older” thing notwithstanding! Here’s kind of what’s happened thus far to make the beginning of my 47th year pretty good…
- Cryptic phone and email messages all week from the best big brother I ever had, culminating today with a long, long list of “Happy Birthday” songs done by every kind of artist you can imagine – and some you can’t, and don’t want to imagine!
- Spent the day with the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” in Dahlonega, Georgia on Saturday – and then she treated me to a couple of new shirts!
- Yesterday “The Boy” drove 240+ miles just to surprise me for my birthday! Cool surprise, no doubt! You just can’t beat lunch with the family at LongHorn – love that marinated salmon and steamed veggies! Oh, and then he turned around and drove back to school.
- Oh, I almost forgot…the very-much-appreciated Starbucks gift card from the world’s best youth pastor and his wife! Thanks, guys!
- Nifty little one-of-a-kind bookmark from the only real! live! newspaper columnist I know!
- Facebook birthday wishes from all over! Thanks, gang!
- Calls from Martha and Howard!
- See those three books above this post? Yeah, those! Pretty sweet and different additions to the ol’ library, courtesy of some birthday gift cards! Oh, I’ve already started on all three of ’em!
- A brand-new notebook and new pens…just waiting to be used! Yes!
- A little plumbing job in the kitchen.
- A little medical records errand for “The Boy.”
- FREE! birthday dinner at my favorite little Eye-talian place. ($14, including tip, for both of us to eat – A LOT! Plus, the company of the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie,” and the great, great sounds of Ol’ Blue Eyes, Lady Ella, Louis Prima, and the Velvet Fog, just to name a few!)
- Now, a little Chris Tomlin Radio on Pandora, and a little Sumatra from my French press are making for a perfect unwind to a pretty good day!
Got this from “The Boy’s” cell phone yesterday…those wacky college kids, spending all their time studying and studying and studying some more…
(BTW, Moby Dick nowhere in sight! Whew!)
Well, we got “The Boy” moved and enrolled in school in “The ‘Boro” yesterday. A few things about that trip…
- Statesboro’s not nearly as far as away as it was 25 years ago. Even though we drive more miles, it doesn’t seem to take as long. Go figure…
- It is still blasted hot in Statesboro!
- The afternoon storms are still just like clockwork.
- That almost-quaint little 7,000-student college has turned into a ginormous 17,000-student major university! 4,000+ new students are starting there this semester!
- It’s probably a good thing they tore down some of the old buildings before “The Boy” got there. Or else those old buildings just might be telling tales on his “Old Man.” Whew!
- Some things never change.
- You know you’re getting really old when you notice that the current head of “The Boy’s” department was a first-year graduate student when you were there! Yikes!
- Whoever decided that the Animal House would be better as a 24/7 fitness facility probably made a wise decision! And whatever happened to “The Flame,” “The Knights of Georgia,” and the “Skate-R-Bowl”?
- “The Boy” has a pretty sweet place to live. (Well, except for the Moby Dick sighting at the pool yesterday morning.) It backs up to Paulson Stadium. Cool, huh?
- And why wasn’t there a Chick-Fil-A and a Starbucks on campus when we were there?
- As strange as it seems, it wasn’t as hard to leave “The Boy” 250+ miles away as it was to leave him 15 miles away three years ago. Go figure…
- “The Boy” has grown up tremendously. And he’s going to add to the family legacy in “The ‘Boro.” And his mom, the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie,” and I are extremely proud that he’s our son!
- Oh…GO EAGLES!
Our faithful old kitty cat, Patches, died some time late in the night. That’s him in a picture that’s the background for my cell phone. it perfectly illustrates for me his curious and inquisitive nature.
We got Patches when “The Boy” was in the second grade. “The Boy” is 21 now.
I was on the way to pick up the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” and “The Boy” from school one afternoon, and I saw a sign advertising “free kittens” at a house on the way. So I stopped, and the runt of the litter was the only one left. I had an empty copier-toner carton in the car, and that box was Patches’s first home. I’ll never forget the look of delight in a second-grader’s eyes, as he got in the car at school, and saw that little black-and-white furball in the box. We went to McDonald’s, where I proceeded to feed Patches with a carton of milk and a straw.
“The Boy” named him “Patches” because of that black patch over one eye. He moved with us ten years ago, and watching him learn to negotiate stairs was a real treat. He’s been really lethargic for a while, and all summer long, we just kind of felt that the end was near. Well, some time in the night, he negotiated those stairs for the last time, and we found him in our dining room.
“The Boy” cried, the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Just Charlie” cried, and there may have been a little dust in my own eyes as well.
No more kitty cat alarm clocks at 4:30 a.m. No more funny and delightful pictures. No more chasing stuff around. No more playing with the strangest things – like the yellow string out of a jacket or those rings from the top of a gallon of milk. No more head bumps in the night. No more wrapping around our heads, purring in the bed.
He was a good ol’ kitty cat…and we miss him already.
I’ve been married for half of my life. To the same woman.
To the same gorgeous, lovely, wonderful woman.
Twenty-three years ago today, I stood at the front of Rainbow Park Baptist Church in Decatur, Georgia and watched as the most beautiful woman I’ve seen before or since made her grand entrance. Wow!
Twenty-three years later, I wouldn’t trade a minute of the trip. Bumps and all.
Thanks, Buddy, for the greatest half-of-a-life any man could ever want.
EYE HEART U!
Break out the AARP cards. Answer “yes” when the self-checkout register asks if you qualify for the senior citizen’s discount. Let the state pick up part of the tab. Open up “those” spam emails.
The best big brother I ever had is 50 today!
Go on over and wish him a happy one!