Happy Birthday, G!

Today is my older brother's 40th birthday. I won't mention more about the idea that it is a shock to me that all the old gang that I started hanging out with when I was in my 20s are now crossing that 40 year threshold. I am at the younger end of the group of friends, so I have a little time left, but not a lot. I have been told by family members the next generation up that the 40 decade is wonderful. I hope so, since I am staring down the barrel of the "40 age shotgun!"

Okay. In honor of my big brother passing this milestone, I would like to share a little family story concerning him.

My brother has an unusual name. In the interest of anonymity, I will simply call him G. G's name caused him a fair amount of grief growing up, all the way through elementary, junior and senior high school. Now, members of my family are blessed with a certain degree of oddness--shall I say nerdiness. There are a few who escaped that gene, but only a very few. So, here you have an odd boy with and odd name. On top of all that, he is a red-head. Kiss your social life good-bye, especially for a boy!!!

Now, the story goes, my parents had made an agreement when they were expecting their firstborn. If the child was born a boy, my mom would name him. If it was a girl, my dad would have the honors. Then whoever didn't "win" the contest the first time would name the second child. Also, they agreed that the names would be kept secret from each other until the baby came.

So the time came, and behold! a child was born--a boy. Some time after the delivery, my dad went in to my mom's room to find out what his son's name was. My mom, in delirious exhaustion mumbled out "Horace." Whenever my dad repeats this story, he flinches at this part. All he could think was "oh no! The poor child!"

So he leaves for a little while and returns when my mom is more awake and alert. He asks her at this point, "so, what is his middle name?" I'm sure he was thinking, maybe we can call the boy by his middle name. My mom answers "Paul." So my dad tries out the full name "Horace Paul."
And now, this is the point where my mom yells out incredulously "Horace?! Who's Horace?!" . . .

So the moral of the story: if you're a geeky, gawky, red-haired kid with a funny, at times embarrassing name, take heart! It could be worse! Your name could be Horace!

Happy Birthday, G!

Peace
C

Summer's finally here

It finally felt warm today, two days after the summer solstice. I always go into a sort of mourning at this time of the year. After June 21st, the days begin getting shorter. It doesn't seem right, somehow. Of course, on Dec 21st, I begin celebrating, because I know that the days from then on are longer. It somehow takes a little bite out of the frozen season.
I spent sometime last night cleaning out messages from our "sent" folder. We had ones going back to when R went through the GVH setback, starting November of 2005. It was really interesting reading all those old messages. Most of them were to Dr S in Boston, composed by me, since R was too sick or weak to sit at the computer. Just reading them, I could sense that tone of desperation. I really was on the edge. And of course the brunt of it happened in the dead of Winter, my worst time of year under normal circumstances. It's funny, as the time stretched on into Spring, there is a definite change in the tone of the emails. Of course, Rich was getting better by then. But I was relaxing with the warmer temps as well. And to have his 40th birthday party that Spring was really special. It was a real milestone to celebrate. Not just because he was turning 40, but also because we were on the recovery end of that brutal fight. I know that it was really something special for him to see so many of his friends, many of whom traveled from a far way off.
I guess it is good every once in a while to go back and see from where you have traveled. Boy was last night a big dose of perspective!!
Peace
C