I'm Uncle Frank

Today is just beautiful, 80 something degrees, Dianne and I have been out in the yard working all afternoon—actually Dianne has been doing all the work. I did hold the water hose for hour or so deep soaking' the new trees in the front strip planted by the city earlier this summer. I really like the trees and will love to see them mature in the coming years. But, really all I did was water but I was in the yard being noticed by neighbors and in turn noticing neighbors. We smiled yelled greeting and waved back and forth as we did the appropriate Saturday things. We saluted the postman and made sure he got his Snickers bar and watched the next door neighbor's driveway and front fill up with trucks and as a birthday party seems to be taking off. It's a Fall Saturday afternoon.

As I sat watching the friends of the neighbor pull up and noticed the other cars of the neighborhood pass by I fantasized to myself—how weird would it be if my brother or cousin happened to drop by. I have a brother who lives a couple of blocks away and cousins who live a couple of miles away but I never see them unless its a national holiday, death or some other family emergency. I then started thinking,how come no one ever just drops by? You know the “ I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I would stop by and see how you're doing.” Wow, that would be so cool! As I whined about this to Dianne she skillfully brought up that this works both ways. This of course got me thinking about how I never did the drop in' when I lived in Boise decades ago. I came up with all kinds of excuses like—at this point in my life I had little of or any disposable income which I could afford gas to make the drive across town trip and he hunted all the time and when he was not hunting he was over at his in-laws and the best excuse then as it is now my brothers homes are not wheelchair accessible—but still, I could still stop say “hello” and be on my way—at least I would have made the effort. So, I need to stop feeling sorry and be the brother I always wanted to have—is this too corny.

This is another weird post,where is it coming from? Yesterday or day before, I was talking bout my brother Ross how I should call him and Dianne took my cell dialed Ross's number and before I knew it I was talking with him and as we visited we both come to the conclusion we had become our Uncle Frank,my father's brother—the family member no one quite new what to do with—it made sense...we were Uncle Frank!