Active People

My cousin T.H. and his wife L.H. are fun active people. They surprised me with a visit late yesterday, ended up spending the night, and are gone again. That’s what’s neat about seeing family—get-togethers aren’t always planned. We don’t visit often enough, so there’s always something new (to me) in their lives. I was expecting the Camry or VW van, not a sporty convertible (see photo).

Because they haven’t seen my Mud Bay house, we started with a tour. They arrived at dusk, with the tide half-way in under a magenta sunset—a quiet perfect night. They had already had dinner so I only needed to break out some bottled beer to be sociable. Since we are responsible adults and their Lakehouse in South Everett is a long drive home, they opted to spend the night. That’s what led to this post, which, I hope, lacks the specific milestones to tie my hands.

T.H. is related on my dad’s side, one of four sons of my dad’s only sister. We were born eight days apart a lot of decades ago. He and L.H. have been married 7 years—the second marriage for both. Her kids are adults living in Denver. He has a Ph.D. in Education and has held about every teaching job you can name. Currently he’s involved in online teaching for the state of Washington. That gives the couple time to travel and, every so often, try to get me to broaden my interests (translation: get me off my lazy butt).

I’m always filled with renewed determination right after they leave. Last night we talked about a living room makeover, my brother’s family history project, improving my cooking skills, joining a tennis club, making a will, buying a computer, not getting a dog, and a few more things I wish I had written down. In general reaching out to friends and relatives to be more active in life. I’m going to try to do these things. Really. But it’s hard to keep from slacking off after they leave.

I did reach out to an old friend with a voice-mail suggestion that we see each other soon. That’s it so far. If I make progress on the other items, I will report them here. But only if it makes me seem active.