Oops, this morning's blog vaporized into space, cyberspace I suspect. So start again and add a bit more.
We just spent several hours over brunch at Mi Familia in a mall on the western edge of San Antonio. Hosted by Gail's brother, Stuart, the sibling closest to Gail in age but still her senior by 5 years, and his son Tommy, the group included the wives of each Stuart and Tom and Tom's two high school daughters. It was great fun testing each other's memories about events in Gail and Stuart's childhood, about what was happening in their lives and to learn more about the teenagers - one is graduating and headed to A&M with no specific career in mind and the other talked about being the only girl to play the tuba in her school.
The day before was dedicated to driving from El Paso after a grand visit with Gail's sister's daughter - a niece for short. The road was good, the covered wagon was great, however the wind was atrocious causing me to glue myself to the steering wheel and jerk back to the straight and narrow after each gust of wind. Niece Kathleen took us to missions along the Rio Grande and then to an afternoon Mexican meal. The food was unique and exciting but the front door and parking were hard to find. Eventually we accomplished finding both.
At one stop a group a ladies who were colleagues of Kathleen came over and introduced themselves. Kathleen is a lawyer and is currently serving as a family court judge. We had very lively and interesting conversation about justice and fairness in family disputes. A part of our drive again included a view of the border fence.
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David was working on his RV trailer as we pulled into Lane and David's yard. Not a gated community but a fenced yard with sheep, chickens, a couple dogs and a tom turkey. Cheeses, sausages, and crackers with great lemonade was served and the stories, and questions, started about family (Lane is Gail's niece) and Alaska (they planning a 3-month trip to the 49th state this summer). Soon Lane's brother, wife and two of the three brothers came by and the stories expanded to include their lives. Mattie, Karl's wife (I'll let you guess who's related to whom), is a quiet beautiful Philippino. The variety of occupations continues: Karl is an ex-militrary, David is a handyman and Lane is a nurse.
As things were winding down, David showed me his latest project. He has a computer-driven rotator machine with which he is carving serving/cutting board with inlayed shells and arrowheads. As a lifetime woodworker this was priceless. No, no such tool lies in my future, but I can still admire and appreciate this new technology. Gone are the days of axes and chisels.
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