Hanging With Our Long Lost Cousin
Okay, so he wasn’t “lost”, but with our busy lives and 900 miles separating us, we all let far too much time pass without hooking up.
Cousin Bryan was our version of “Fun Bob” when we were growing up. Although he is 7 years older than me, he and Joe are only a year apart; Those two were wreaking some serious havoc 25 years ago and they’ve got the stories (and scars?) to prove it.
There’s so much stuff to tell about the weekend and so little energy in my fingers so I’ll hit the hot points.
We spent the entire time in The Garage. The end.
Okay, that’s not entirely true. We went to a Bowl-A-Thon on Saturday night for a charity sponsored by the Optimist Club (My Dad is the local chapter president this year). It was great fun because several of my siblings were there and all of the kids, mine bowling for the first time. My pal Kirk and his wife Karen showed up too. It was an all around good time. But back to The Garage…
We spent most of our time just hanging out, playing pool and telling war stories. We got caught up on each other’s family lives and again, I got to hear some of the untold stories from Bryan and Joe’s youth. Sometimes they seemed like survival stories, especially to a youngster like myself.
Moving backwards… my Mom and sisters (and their families) all cruised over to my place to get some “Bryan time”, along with Joe’s family and a neighbor or two. We could have talked forever but heavy round balls and a chance to win prizes caused a break-up of the party.
Further backwards… Matt came over Saturday morning to say “hey” and had an idea to cook up some Crab Benedict. He is an excellent chef and very meticulous about his craft. He ended up buying all of the goods, bringing his own cookware over and made us all an insane breakfast. Then he cleaned up his stuff and made his way back home. Who has neighbors like this? It was so crazy cool of him I can’t find the words to describe it.
I don’t suppose I treated my liver very well during Bryan’s visit but that’s okay; Kerri would surely donate part of hers to me if mine ends up in a Kaput! state. This is likely because we’re different blood types and it would be a neat (as in clean) way to get me out of her hair and into the morgue.
Sunday morning came way too soon and we had to pop into hurry-up mode to get out of the house on time to get Bryan to the airport. Saying goodbye is always tough but it was especially painful this time because it seemed that our catch-up time was just getting started. We all promised to not let so much time pass before we hook up again, gave some hugs (Yes, I can hug another man — I do it all the time. Wait, I, ummm…) and wished each other well. That was it, the end of a mini-era. Looking forward to seeing Bryan again before the year is out.
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