Brother and family in town

[~Brian~]

Good morning:

I am told my brother arrives today from Dallas Texas. He will be arriving in Vermont sometime this afternoon, and I will be able to see him starting on Monday. For about six days, he will be here and I will be with my family during this time. I may check in from time to time, depending on what is going on, but for the most part I will take advantage of every moment that he is here. It is a very very special time when he comes up and we are all able to get together.

Brian

[DailyDi]

Have a great time and a merry Christmas

[~Brian~]

@DailyDi

Thank you Mikey!
 

as I said in a previous post, days like this don’t come very often. My brother ERIC moved to Texas several years ago because he had a job offer there, because he teaches in an Adventist high school. I believe it was two or three years ago, and I had talked to ERIC on zoom, and then via telephone, and he said that he would not be coming up for Thanksgiving that year. Unbeknownst to me, he spoke. To his wife, after this and apparently change their mind because of my impassioned plea to have him come up here for the holiday. Imagine my surprise that Thursday night, after I came home at about seven at night, to see my brother ERIC and his wife sitting in my living room. That was the best Thanksgiving present I ever received, and I was so happy to see him. When we got together, we did a lot of things together, including going out to eat, and having several weeknights in a couple of weekends playing board games, and just hanging out and enjoying each other‘s company. Because of COVID-19, we haven’t seen each other for a couple of years. When my brother Mike told me that Our brother and his family were coming up for Christmas, I was very very happy.

it is my hope that regardless of what happens, that all of us will be able to see each other this Christmas. I don’t know if my brother JAMES will make an appearance, because he is taking precautions against COVID-19, and works in the healthcare industry. I can understand his reluctance, because he wants to keep his family safe. I hope though that we wouldn’t be able to see him, and that maybe my brother DAN will come up as well. It is always a good thing when all of us are together, and we all take care of one another. I am the oldest, and even though my brothers take real good care of me, I always try to take care of them as much as I can. I won’t worry during his stay, because I know regardless of what happens, that they “have my back“ and if they “have my back, that nothing will happen to me – and we will have a good time. The only thing that sucks will be, that the time will start now, and before I turn around it will be New Year’s, and by that time he will be gone and back to Texas. I hope that we all have a good time, we all get to see each other, and that we are able to gain a blessing because of everyone’s company. Far too often, we end up taking for granted the most important thing that is around: our family, our friends, and those that love us and take care of us. I am glad that they are here, and I hope everyone will have a chance to see each other. ERIC tells me that we might be able to set up a time for me and the guys to go up to his Airbnb location in the town of Morrisville Vermont, and then hang out together. If that happens, I will take advantage of that: I guess I’m just a “old softy“ but I love my family, and I keep saying to certain people, including my mom, that I “love them more than life itself“ which should be an obvious thing, because family is the only thing that you have, and once you have lost them, or you lose somebody that you had in your life that is no longer there, it is hard to replace it, And the memories may be there, but they are hard to re-create, and even when you make new traditions, they may not be the same. Family members that are gone are always ones that will be with us forever, and they leave indelible “marks“ in your life, so that you will remember them. I will cherish all of these memories, but it’s still not the same as if they were standing in front of me, even though they are better off in a better place, it’s still hard sometimes.

hope you have an awesome Christmas to Mikey:   are you planning on making a ham? I will probably have a “delivered Christmas meal“ that day, and I’ve already talk to my father, who because of Covid restriction, and being cautious, will make an appearance here this week, and drop off whatever he wants to to me, and he will talk to me probably for a few moments, and then leave. My dad is “immunocompromised“ just like me, and he Does not want to take a chance on getting sick, or catching the virus. My dad being 75, I can understand his reluctance, and I respect him for wanting to be safe. I will tell my mom the same thing, that I don’t want to get them sick, because I haven’t been feeling well lately, and I have some sort of I infection according to what the doctor told me the other day. Both of my eyes are as red as fire engines, and I’ve been on anabiotic eyedrops since Friday afternoon, so I don’t wanna take a chance.

Merry Christmas and happy new year! May you gain a blessing, and may he grant you peace, no pain, and the ability to enjoy the holidays to your best ability. Having pain really sucks, and I am unfortunately dealing with it myself. I will update everyone as to my status after I get my EMG results, but I think that what they will tell me is that the problem is in my neck, which will mean that I will probably have to have an operation to remove the piece that is blocking off the nerve.  
 

Brian

[Little Cub Pants]

Have fun Brian!???❤️?❤️☺️?❤️????

[~Brian~]

7 minutes ago, BabySpiderBoy said:

Have fun Brian!???❤️?❤️☺️?❤️????

@BabySpiderBoy

thank you my friend! I plan on it! ?????

two words: B R O T H E R S U N I  T E!!!!!! ???????

Brian

[Little Cub Pants]

27 minutes ago, ~Brian~ said:

@BabySpiderBoy

thank you my friend! I plan on it! ?????

two words: B R O T H E R S U N I  T E!!!!!! ???????

Brian

What does that even mean???? LOL!??

[~Brian~]

32 minutes ago, BabySpiderBoy said:

What does that even mean???? LOL!??

@BabySpiderBoy

I have four brothers: Michael is in the area, Daniel is about 40 miles away, ERIC is in Texas, JAMES is in New Hampshire. I don’t get to see them as often as I would like, but Michael is always here. When my other brothers are around, it is always a good thing, so if you actually watch the old Voltron series, you know that they were five l lions:  Black, yellow, green, red, blue. Of course, when I say, “brothers unite“ that means that we all are together as one unit, and we are able to handle almost any situation as a unit. I love my family more than life itself, and that includes my brothers. Through thick and thin, my brothers have been there to help me when I thought I didn’t have anyone, and they support me. Even when I may disagree, or maybe you get mad at them. My brothers and I have very special relationships that stand the test of time or trouble. In my mind, my brothers are awesome guys, and they know my weaknesses, and my strengths, and they always give me positive encouragement, and they always let me know when I might be doing something a little bit crazy, or when I should be doing something because I am “lazy“, but my brothers are incredible people, although I would have liked to see me have some sisters. Mom was not that lucky to have any girls, so I had to “adopt“ a couple of my neighbors kids as my sisters, and I respect them as such. I also have a brother name Nate, and I have not seen him for a while, but I know that he comes around to check on my dad and his mom. All in all, I am a lucky guy, and I’m damn glad that I have a team of brothers like this.

take care!

Brian

 

[square_duck]

Have a great time!!!. ..just, don't poop in your pants....ok? ?

[~Brian~]

@square_duck

oh I certainly won’t do that “poop my pants“ that is! I had a real good Christmas. Friday night, I went to my cousins house in Greensboro been Vermont. This house was built in 1843, and is the HILL family Homestead. Our uncle and aunt used to live in it for many years, and before that several family members. I happen to see when I left that night that plaque on the wall and said “1843 holy smokes, this is awesome“ and it reminds me of an old quaint American Vermont traditional farmhouse. And when I mean farmhouse I’m in farmhouse. This place is only seconded by my grandmother BAKER’s former residence, which had 14 rooms and 4 floors. It was really nice to see this place again, it’s always a nice reminder of what yesteryear was like.

this year of course, I got to see my brother Michael my brother ERIC my brother JAMES, my nephew Jared, Eric‘s wife Marisela, my stepmother, my father, my stepdad, and then I got calls from a few friends as well, as well as texts from EVE Elle.  I may have also gotten other texts as well, for my mom, but I can’t remember if I got any more than that. Regardless of that fact, I had a wonderful holiday with my family.

this morning I got a visit from JAMES. I had a good talk with him for about 45 minutes, and we discussed my new air fryer, and other types of recipes. Apparently, he did a stake in his the other day and said it was really good I think he said it was at 350 or 400° for about 30 minutes or less, but he said it was really good. It looks like the basket of this thing is 6 inches wide, so it is kind of small, but it will work fine for me.

from him I ended up getting a picture of my three nieces: Carter, Marlowe, And Shyla. Marlo being the youngest, Carter being the oldest. Apparently JAMES says that little Marlowe hada fever, so she wasn’t feeling too well. I hope that she feels better soon, and told him the same thing, telling him to “give her and the girls a hug for me“. He gave me 3 Christmas gifts from them: one was a picture of Carter, Marlowe, And Shula  together as three sisters.  When I get a chance, I will have someone put a picture hanger below my brother in mind picture and that way when I look to the left in the morning I will see my three nieces when I look above that I will see my brother and I as we celebrated our birthday, and I don’t know if this was my 17th My 18th, or another birthday. I’m not sure which one, but I cherish that picture almost as much is the one that was taken when I graduated as a bachelors candidate at Champlain and my father was standing with me on the courtyard of Hauke Family Campus Center.  Even today, when I go back to Champlain for a visit, and I walk into a building, I feel like I’m walking back into my home, the one place that I learned so much, and expanding my horizons, learning a lot of good lessons in life and in the business community. I will never forget the time I spent there, even though some of it wasn’t the best, but you have to roll forward and make do with it. I am proud of everything that I have done there, so I always have good memories of that place.

The Second Christmas gift was a container of cookies. I always like sweets, but I don’t like to overdo it, because it’s not good for you. But in the holiday season you can’t help but want to “sneak” a little snack every once in a while, and I have plenty of that for a while. I always like chocolate chip or any other cookies, so I’ll be interested to see what it is that I have in that box. I got some from my roommate and his family as well, and I’ve eaten some of those, including some chocolate, cookies, and a couple of other things that I can’t remember. All in all that’s an awesome gift as well.

Second Christmas gift was a container of cookies. I always like sweets, but I don’t like to overdo it, because it’s not good for you. But in the holiday season you can’t help but want to “sneak“ a little snack every once in a while, and I have plenty of that for a while. I always like chocolate chip or any other cookies, so I’ll be interested to see what it is that I have in that box. I got some from my roommate and his family as well, and I’ve eaten some of those, including some chocolates, cookies, and a couple of other things that I can’t remember. Oh I know that’s an awesome gift as well.

third and last was the game “animal crossing New Horizon‘s“ for the Nintendo switch. JAMES had asked me to give him a list of games that I was interested in, and I actually listed animal crossing is one of them, because I wanted to test it out. I get the feeling that this is going to be an interesting game, and I like a challenge, and I think this will be similar to Minecraft in the way you have to do certain things, but I hope there is a heck of a lot more interaction like in the Mario series worlds where are you have to do certain things, like in Mario maker two or whatever that is.  I have it loaded in my docked switch, And 14 minutes remaining until I can launch that game. It is downloading data updates as well, so sometimes you have to wait. So I will see what that is like.

The only brother I did not actually see was my brother DAN. I did not see him because I did not make a trip with my brother MIKE to his house.   Also, the roads were very slippery and Daniel did not want to make a trip down here with the weather like this.   I did not accompany MIKE to his house, because the weather was really nice when I left on Friday night, and by Saturday morning when I got up, it had rained and frozen, making the roads very very slippery. Got a call from my stepdad who said that he would be down later, because of the roads, and my mom had already stated the same thing. So I saw my stepdad and I got my gift from them, I had already seen my father that day, and then I saw JAMES today. ERIC and his family leave today to go back to Boston for a few days, before they board a jet at Logan airport to return to Dallas Fort Worth. It has been an awesome time, and I would not change it for one second. It is a shame that I could not attend with my brother yesterday, but even when he came back, he said that the driveway was a sheet of ice, and I had the same problem at my cousins house, but my stepmom was able to drive the vehicle all the way up to the door, so I only had to walk 10 feet.  When I say my brothers “take care of me“ I mean they take care of me. I didn’t even have to do hardly anything other than to roll my walker forward. When I got to the stairway I just lifted my walker onto the deck, and they help me be able to enter the house, then on the return, I had my brothers help me, along with my nephew Jared, and he was behind me, as I move forward. I was in the truck and waiting for them, and then my brother MIKE brought me a bottle of water, which I needed for the return, because the truck was so hot. When I returned home, I almost wanted to go out onto the deck bare chested, because it was so hot and I was sweating to death. Took me a few hours to get to sleep, but it was worth it, because I wasn’t so hot.

all in all, a very very good holiday season. I may call my brother Daniel sometime next week just to talk to him and find out how his Christmas went, but I am very happy. I might not have been able to go to my moms because of my condition, or because of slippery areas, but I would rather be here and not have to worry about safety, because I’ve been on the driveway when it is glare ice, and it is no fun. My brothers know that I am only a call away, and I know that if I ever wanted to talk to one of them or text them they would be able to respond, so it’s not a big deal. But I wanted to say that I had a wonderful Christmas with my family, and I look forward to a good 2022. Let’s hope that they’re able to help me with my shoulder and my neck. I think my neck is the problem, although neurology thinks I have irritated the funnybone, so we’ll have to see what orthopedist says.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I will post another posting that has the list of things I got for Christmas.

Brian

 

Edited December 27, 2021 by ~Brian~
Corrected spelling