You know, whoever said that summer is deadtime in yarn shops hasn’t spent a whole lot of time in my company. I feel like I’ve been scrambling since the first blades of grass started poking through the snow in my front yard, and only in the last few weeks have I started to feel like I’m getting an actual handle on my schedule.
Of course, no tiny part of that has to do with something very, very tiny.
My new great nephew, Carson.
No, I’m not a father. No, nor a daddy.
My much beloved niece Morgan who finally married her beau of several years two Christmases ago just gave birth to this handsome, young devil. This, ladies and gentlemen, is my great nephew, Carson, and yes, he really is that cute. Unfortunately, he’s in Georgia, and I live in Michigan, so yes, a pilgrimage in August was undertaken by yours truly.
Now, I’m deeply enamoured of my own Southernness. I love fried green tomatoes, fried okra, corn bread, and Blue Plate Mayonnaise. I love Paula Deen and sweet tea and Designing Women and the Braves. And I love Michigan’s climate.
August is not the best time of year to visit Georgia, if anyone’s asking. If you tend to stay on the warm side, just stay home. But I have a new little bundle of joy to behold, and nothing but nothing was going to stop me.
I did drive down, just because I’ve worked at least six days a week for the last year or so with very little respite. As a true-blue computer geek from the word go (and yes, I do keep the Klingon forehead ridge in the desk drawer just in case it becomes necessary), I treasure my solitary time. Having been without it since sometime in 2003, I was getting a little cranky.
I hit the road last Wednesday, got about five minutes out of town, and apparently some kind of dam burst. If I thought I loved my job before, I know it now. My brain kicked into overdrive, and I had to put the car on cruise. That tiny bit of perspective allowed me an opportunity to view our entire business plan from a slight distance. Oh, wow!! Why hadn’t I seen that?!? Why aren’t we doing this other thing?!? By the time I pulled into my mother’s driveway in Georgia, my head was buzzing like a thousand thousand angry beehives in the hot Georgia sun.
And then I saw that face.
You guessed it. More baby pictures.
Hmm…
I did eventually make my way back to my beloved home in Michigan. ThreadBear is still just about my most favorite-est place in the world to be, and I couldn’t be happier with where life has brought me. And yeah, between the long drive down and the long drive back, I’m full of new energy and ideas that poor Rob has only gotten the barest glimpse of. But there’s a little more tenderness in how I speak, and a little more smile in how I look at everything that comes my way.
I’m a great uncle, now.
Just don’t ask to see pictures without a few hours on your hands.