After his haircut, he swept up the hair and went to scatter it across the weedy backyard, but kind of did it into the wind and had to dance around a little to avoid it. He came inside and said, “That didn’t go right…”
Almost every time he came into the kitchen, he’d dig into the jelly bellies he bought from Costco. He was generous with them, even the ones he considered his favorites, like juicy pear. He offered those to me more than once. When I took a small jar of them to him when we were boating, he shared them all around. Knowing how much he liked them, I didn’t like seeing several of them in the sand, wasted, so I didn’t bring more the next day. As usual, he was fine with that. He’d have been fine if I had though.
On High/Low, his high was fishing with Schaffers. He hadn’t been fishing in years, and being there with Tim and God’s outdoors, catching five trout, that was the best. The low was not being able to fix the tractor with Kev, even having Gaga on the phone trying to talk them through the operation. (We ended up hauling it to Dad’s when we dropped off Brett the night before he went back to school.)
When the horses got loose, he helped us get them back home. When I saw him take off on the bike, he had on his Arcteryx shirt & some shorts. When he came in with a horse in tow with Kev & Ryan, he had on jeans and his boonie hat. I don’t know when he changed, but it was cute to see him with that hat on again. Brought back memories of our little trip to Oregon a couple of years ago. I still have a picture of him with it on inside the plate cupboard.
He was the most respectful of Ryan that he’s been, but still quick to counter or question when something didn’t sound right. Don’t know if Ryan realized that though because he was quick to be defensive, as if he was ready to defend whatever he had to say.
When we picked up Ryan from NBC camp, Brett told him, “You must have loved doing this. It’s three of your favorite things: basketball, God, and telling people what to do.”
He won the last game of backgammon against Kev by one point. If Kev had rolled doubles, he would’ve won, but the kid pulled it off.
Kev had a harder time with Brett leaving this time than the previous times, maybe because he was home longer (4 weeks v. 3). He’d be overcome with missing him and not wanting to let him go and just have to sit there and ride it out until he could pull it back together. That he was taking it so hard somehow made it easier for me to keep from losing it. We do that. When one of us is weak, the other is the strong one. Thank You, Daddy, for my Kebboo. Hug his heart close and keep him from missing his oldest son so very, very much.
One of the finer moments was when we went to REI and he bought a great backpack for Ryan for a birthday/graduation present. Ryan was both surprised and excited. It was about $100, so it was no small thing.
Stumble It!
