Birmingham Chronicles, Day 2

Once again loading up with the next-door neighbor's wireless connection...

I got up early yesterday, primarily because I like getting up early. I have no idea when this started exactly, but now I love the peace and quiet of the mornings. Plus, my getting ready and out of the way gave the three women in my life the bathroom access they'd need to get ready.

And my father-in-law has this sun porch he added to his house. It's all windows and doors and if you look straight ahead, it's nothing but trees, and if you look out at about 10 o-clock you can see the tops of the hills. Good place to write or think. Wise man, my father-in-law. And, sure, it's a bit chilly. But he's got a space heater. And Lloyd hangs out on the porch sofa with his bone.

This trip has been difficult for Lloyd. He's still got some puppy in him after three years and he's been playing or inspecting or visiting the whole time. This dog generally sleeps some 20 hours a day and he only got about 2 the day before and 6 overnight. He finally hit the wall last night and crashed in a room full of people.

But the morning was spent kinda backwards. Generally, I read the Dallas newspaper and get the Birmingham paper on-line. Reverse order now. Then, I got on in the sun porch and blogged and read blogs.

My neice and nephew came over just before lunch. Katelyn, who is 3, asked her mom if that "grown-up boy" was going to be there. "Yes, Katelyn, your Uncle Brent will be there." My nephew is 11. It took about 6 minutes before he and Kelsey were behind the sofa firing ping-pong balls at me. I fired back even though I had no furniture to use as a shield...so suffice to say I took some hits and both have some pretty good arms, but as a last resort I used my size to pin them both down and inflict pain. Later we went to the park and played something that loosely resembled football.

After that we visited my mom. It was a very nice visit and she got all caught up in asking them about their stuff going on and all that jazz. Due to the chemo & recovery time, she's got a really good two-hour burst in her, and we didn't want to overstay...but we'll see her again on Christmas Eve.

We had to come back on Birmingham's notorious Highway 280 during 5PM traffic. When I left Birmigham over 10 years ago that road was a nightmare and there were plans on the table to fix it. Apparently, those plans are still on the table. What's the matter with the city leadership here? Why are they so reactive instead of proactive? Maybe it's that way everywhere and it just seems so magnified because I see the potential this city has...and why it shouldn't have ever fallen behind Atlanta and certainly never should've let Nashville become more important.

Then last night we had a little get-together with some family friends. They're actually the in-laws' best friends who are more or less Tracy's aunt & uncle. We've been doing the get-together since I've known Tracy and it's really fun. Of course, now the dynamics are such that the flower girl at my wedding is now married...and now all of us who were there a decade ago now have our kids getting the gifts, but it's really fun. The most interesting thing was everybody looking at "what's on each other's iPods." You can learn a lot about people quickly that way.

Presents were opened...the old stories were told--and laughed at...the "I feel so old" comments were made...the "got you a cool gift that didn't cost too much" stuff was exchanged...the "see you next year" stuff was said...

...and it was very nice.

It's suddenly starting to feel like Christmas.