Today our son, Jeff, is 42. There were many times during those years I was sure he wouldn’t reach the next one, but he always did, and we’re grateful for that. He’s got a great family, which we get to see frequently because he still lives close enough to borrow stuff. It’s a good tradeoff. We love them all dearly, in case that didn’t come through above. Today he brought Gilligan along for a ride when he returned the old truck he needed for a task.

Before going further, I must correct a terrible omission from two days ago when I was 70. On that day in history, the lovely Maryssa graduated from Skyview High School in Nampa. She received a sports scholarship to Eastern Oregon University to play softball for the next four years. I heard a rumor that she will major in either sports medicine or continue her education on-line, after graduating, to get an advanced degree in nuclear basics in an attempt to learn about fission as it relates to the study of maggots that attack migrant squirrels, before they get run over on I-17, in Northern Arizona. As always, of course, I could be wrong. That happens once in a while.

Maryssa, by the way, is the daughter of my Idaho niece, Steffani, married to Bob, who was obtained by my older brother, Jim, from his first wife, Donna.

The significant issue about Maryssa graduating is that she’s going to follow her older brothers lead and abandon Nampa to attend college. Unlike her older brothers, who elected to stay in Idaho for their college careers, she chose to seek excitement by moving west to the more chic and modern La Grande, Oregon. That and, of course, the scholarship. We wish her well and we plan to attend all the games she may have with local area colleges.

As I may have mentioned in a previous post, Lydia’s JV softball season ended a week or so ago and we were prepared to just stick it out until next season. Turns out, however, that the varsity team (11-2) is going to state and their coach asked Lydia and another JV player, Abby, to step up and play with them. So, it’s not over yet. It’s an awesome way to end her freshman year, playing varsity for the Oregon state high school softball championship. She’s very excited about it, as are we.

At this time, I’m resting my weary bones because I separated about a ton of dirt from crab grass and some very clingy weeds this morning and afternoon. Then I removed the mower deck from my mower, hooked up the trailer, and relocated them to the lower yard in the vicinity of the burn pile. They will return, I’m know. They always do. But, moving them as far away as possible slows them down.

Now I must prepare myself for bed. It takes a while to get everything arranged just right so I can slumber. I’ve already put away the underwear I found on the bed earlier this evening, so I can just jump in the sack willy nilly. It’s good the underwear were there because I haven’t seen a recently laundered pair of tighty whitey’s in about 6 weeks. I made it that long without ever wearing the same pair of undies two days in a row. It think it was a test. I don’t if I passed.