Seasons Greetings
I got a card in the mail today from my sister back in Missouri. It reminded me of the cards that Grandma (on Dad’s side) would give us when we were kids. It’s a beautiful card and got me to thinking. I should send her a card too, something special. They say that homemade gifts are more thoughtful and since I have a new photo printer, let’s do something special! I hope she likes it. Here’s what I’ve done so far.
E.T. phone home
Here are a few pictures of my brother E.T. (Eric) and his friend Jason. They dropped by this morning on their way to Texas for the Red Bull Last Man Standing Race. He looks just just dad did when he was Eric’s age.
A family visit
Mom, Connie, and Jeanine dropped by for a visit today. Jeanine didn’t want me posting funny pictures on the site, so here’s a photoshopped “sketch” version of a picture I took. Don’t they look happy!
Here’s a photo of Connie that I played around with and tried to make it look like an old newspaper clipping.
My little brother
I’m writing this a few months after the fact, but still am not quite ready to write too much about it. My little brother, Travis, died on May 27th while on a canoe trip with my other brother Eric, and some friends of theirs.
Travis was only 21 years old and I haven’t seen him since he was about 14.
Here’s a picture that my Aunt Deb posted and Mom told me about last night (Aug 2nd). It’s Travis giving Mom a hug. He looks exactly as I remember him, except maybe a bit taller.
It doesn’t seem fair that this happened to him. He was the one in the family that always had a good outlook on things, great sense of humor, and seemed to always find a way to get people to laugh.
News from the home front
Mom called the other day with that sound in her voice. That’s never a good sign, usually when someone’s died. She said a lady went into the school last week, the school where Mom works, and said that Carl is sick. Carl’s an old friend of mine. He used to drop by late at night, drink coffee, and watch the races on my satellite. When I’d be at work, he’d let himself in with a key, make himself a pot of coffee and watch the races on my satellite. Ha ha. I always enjoyed listening to his stories about being on a ship, the U.S.S. Cross, in WWII. Anywho, Carl had a hip replaced recently and seemed a bit down. That lady said that he talks about me often and she thinks it’d raise his spirits if I were to give him a call. So, I did.
No infection thank goodness. But he does have several arterial blood clots in his leg. He seemed in good spirits to me, but that’s just Carl, nothing seemed to get him down. He told me that his doctors said he may end up loosing a foot over it and he promptly told them that they might as well take his head off too, he’s not doing without his foot. Then he went to say that he’s been around for over 80 years, if it’s his time, it’s his time. He doesn’t really expect to make it through the surgery and that he’s ready to go.
I sure don’t want anything to happen to him, but then again, nobody wants anything bad to happen to any of their friends. About the only thing I could say after that was “well, if it’s your time and you don’t make it through the surgery, I’ll see you when I get there”. He chuckled and said I’d better, we haven’t had coffee in a while.