Remembering dates has been a hit and miss proposition for me my entire life, there are some dates that I remember without any problem even though I no real reason to remember them any longer since I have lost touch with those people over forty years ago, that being their birthdays. I had two friends in grade school that were born on July 2 and every July 2nd it comes to mind. I have not seen or talked to either of them since we graduated high school in 1974, yet I still remember them.
Today, July19th is my oldest brother’s birthday but I never could seem to remember it, for some reason I always would be a month off and would call him in June on the 19th and be a month early. This year I didn’t call him in June and I will be calling him today, I think this might actually one of only a handful of times that I will have gotten it correct. The funny part is I have never had a problem remembering the date he married his wife and I have always called them and wished them a happy anniversary on October 2nd every year since 1972.
I don’t know what it is about his birthday that has given me so much trouble remembering but thanks to the calendar on my phone I think I have finally gotten the solution literally in the palm of my hand. Ever since calendars started being placed on phones I have used them for work appointments and meetings, sales promotions dates and trips but didn’t use it for personal stuff, like birthdays. Last year I finally broke that habit and starting placing birthdays on the phone calendar and it pays off today. I think he will actually be surprised since my tract record isn’t that great when it comes to his birthday.
Since I am confessing some things, I will also admit I really don’t know how old he is this year. I wasn’t around when he was born so that’s my excuse. I know he is at least ten years older than me but it may be as many as 12 or 14 for all I know. But I have every intention to find that out when I call him, and that will go on the calendar too.
As some of you might know I am in the Rio Grande Valley this week and let me tell you, it is hot, and I don’t mean just hot… it is hot like Hades hot down here. In Rio Grande City on Tuesday it was 111 degrees with a “feels like” temperature of 115. Wednesday in Pharr, Texas it was 105 and the weatherman said it felt like 109. Over by the coast on Monday it was a comfortable 98 with a nice sea breeze coming in off the Gulf of Mexico, but the humidity was a killer so it was really more “un” than comfortable , as in uncomfortable. I spend a lot of time on construction sites in my line of work so between the heat, dust and humidity the shower at the end of the workday has been welcome relief for me.
Some of you also know the youngest boy is up in West Virginia this week with his youth group doing some volunteer work up there. His luck hasn’t been the greatest on this trip, the trip up there was pretty much uneventful and they made it to all there stops without any issues. Monday his group went out and started their work that day. His group’s project involved tearing down an old porch on a house and rebuilding it this week.
Monday evening after they had supper he started feeling ill, he was up most the night vomiting his guts outs, and he wasn’t alone as four others in their group of sixty all had come down with some stomach bug. Turned out that one of the girls on the trip had a little sister who was sick right before she left on the trip, the guess is she was the bug carrier as she was the first to come down with it about 12 hours before the other three. It ended up being just a 24 hour bug and he was back to working on Wednesday on the porch job.
I felt bad for him, being so far from home and sick, and not being able to do what you went there for, even if it was just for the one day. Hopefully he won’t have a relapse or those kids won’t keep passing it around since they are all in pretty tight quarters and spending basically day and night with each other, it will be interesting to know how that all plays out.
So does anyone else have any dates they have trouble remembering? I can tell you one date coming up that I won’t forget, July 23rd. The complete date would be July 23, 1994 to be exact, which was the day me and the Mrs. were married, so this coming Monday will mark 24 years for us. Monday will also be the day the youngest boy gets back from WVA so we will have plenty of things to talk about and celebrate Monday.
That should about bring us up to speed with how the week is going, so with that, I bid you a good day.
