THE JEFFEY MY HERO

I just can't say often enough how much I admire my baby brother, and how sad it makes me that our mother didn't live to see how well he ended up. He was a monstrous child, but had a certain light about him even at his worst. Just look at him today! He's stayed married to the same woman, brought up her son like his own, and their daughters, the youngest, severely disabled, and most impressive, survived the crap The Philmore and The Wicked Stepmother of Evility piled on him, or rather tried to pile on him. When I called yesterday, his house was full of friends and family who love him. That shows more than anything what a great man he grew up to become. His wife's mother died last week and it's as if he lost his own mother again. They were that close, and yes, she was wonderful too. I'll never forget the day in 1989 that I called him at their house in Brunswick and she ran me through an interrogation the CIA would have approved of before I convinced her that I really am his sister! No strange woman was going to come between her daughter and her husband! The really funny part was that I had to convince him that I really was his sister. Once convinced he almost broke my speed record on Mere Point Rd getting to me. She treated him as a son, and he will miss her as much as Vicky will. My baby brother is one special guy, and I can't wait to get there for Jenny's graduation. Ooof. I forgot to tell him to watch NBC news on Thursday so he can see my translation. I'll call later today and tell Vicky to tell him!
The big storm is over, almost. It's still raining and cold, but they say the rain will let up soon. The minute it does, I'm taking Peg for walkies , then going to get my reading glasses mess sorted. I managed to break the 'bedroom' pair and only have the computer pair which for now have to taken from room to room. With a bit of luck, my glasses guy will be able to weld the 'bedroom' frame back together. If not, I'll get two new pairs, one for the bedroom and another for the *liberry*. I hope he has two purple frames in the cheap Health Fund subsidized section. I'm all out of my favorite Galilee Optics purple frames. They, G.O. are out of them too as I finagled the last two pairs back in 1998! They've lasted a long time so I shouldn't complain, but I do like them.
I had a lovely talk with Kiri Two Legs yesterday. She's home in Wales for the first Christmas in 7 years. She's warned the family that I want to visit in February, and they are agreeable. Yes! I'm going to the smallest village in Britain. It has two whole houses. I can't wait. That's going to be almost as much fun as our planned meeting in Vietnam next year sometime. I say almost because by the time I get to Wales, she'll be back in Indo. That has it's up side. For some odd reason, cell phone and internet reception in Wales is "shite" (her word), but the phone line was clear as a bell. The opposite of when she's in Indo, the texting works just fine, but the phone connection is less clear. Oh, well, just another cosmic example of "you can't have it all"!