Sweet Time at Home in Alabama

I’ve been at home in Alabama for five weeks and still counting. Here thoughts and memories of high school come rushing back, ready or not. After all, it’s a high school town that revolves around high school football when it’s season, then high school basketball, then summer baseball and softball and what else do you need? Everywhere I go I run into people with whom I went to high school, and even if I didn’t know them then, I recognize their faces and say hello. Fortunately for me, high school was an overall pleasant experience so this is not such a bother but is really rather interesting. It’s been fun to see these young men and women again and to find out what they are doing in life these days. Apart from that, I have my friends here (most of which I know from high school) and what a pleasure to reconnect after almost a whole year!

My brother Jon has in recent years begun his own contracting business. He’ll do about anything inside or outside a house from the tiling to the siding. The business has been reasonably successful so far and I am proud of him. During some of these summer weeks he has been a bit short staffed, so I have been invited to “come join the fun,” as he puts it.. So I have. Yes, I have been learning how to put up drywall, take up linoleum, scrape up the glue that once held the linoleum ever-so securely to the floor (yikes! achy hands for weeks!), and all of that neat manly stuff.

You’ll see above the pictures of my father and I preparing to ride his motorcycle. For those of you who might be interested, it’s a Harley Road King, which is humongous and provides a very comfortable ride. We took a two hour trip Tupelo by way of the Natch’s Trace to do some car shopping. Well, the car deal did not work out in Tupelo, so we went a couple of hours more down the road to Itta Bena (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apq46lA0uSM) to check out another vehicle. When that one was not satisfactory, it was back on the bike for a long four hours (plus stopping time) to home sweet home. In total, we spent probably twelve hours of road time, but it was a super long day, having begun at 8 AM and finally returning home at 12 PM.

Triathlon season has begun! For the first one, the Wet Dog which is held here in my home town, my brother Matt and his family were here (see pictures of adorable children, above). This is a tradition we have. He comes home in the beginning of July and, having trained or not, we do this triathlon together. It has become a big family event, this year with Mom, Dad, my sister-in-law Chasity, brother Dave, and the kids (my niece Savannah, and nephews Jonathan David and Phoenix) coming out to support. We had a good old time. My next one is August 13 in Guntersville.