Getting reacquainted

We reconnected with folks this week. My brother Robert was in town last weekend with his family. Adam and Laura met us this week, too and I saw my cousin Joe for the first time in maybe six or seven years.

You'll notice in the stories that I'm telling here that I'm withholding a bit. It's not for tax purposes. While I like to tell a lot about my personal life on here, I know that not everyone does. I try and respect other people's privacy while telling my story.

Robert was in town for work on our father's estate. That's progressing. There was a tree (two trees?) on the land that had root rot. At least that's how I've defined it. These two trees were apparently (meaning as far as I can tell and I know little about trees) some sort of pine trees and joined at the roots. They were tall — 40+ feet — and joined at the base so that they made, when they were healthy, a narrow "V". Anyway, one of these two started to lean before Dad died. I don't know how long. As of last week this one leaned over from vertical to maybe 30 degrees from vertical. Significant and I started to worry about the house and it hitting someone. Sometime earlier this week it fell over, killing another tree and flattening a section of fence. I'm happy to report that no people or things I cared about were harmed in the creation of this blog post or the falling of this tree. On Thursday I chopped down the companion tree. It took me almost two hours and my hands are still sore. Very satisfying, though.

Adam and Laura had chocolate and wine with us this week. These are our old friends (I've known Adam since high school) who moved to Raleigh NC last year. They looked well and we had a good time catching up. Uly warmed up to both of them.

My cousin Joe from Las Vegas was in town this week and I introduced him to Uly over at my Grandma's. It was good seeing him. We have nearly polar opposite political views on many things, but I can honestly say that he discussed these things as a gentleman without getting riled. Not everyone can do that. It sounds like he's having a good time with his family - his wife and two boys - and has his hands full, too.

There are two photos of my dad attached to this post. One is a photo from when he was a baby. I think he looks a lot like Ul.

- Steve