Kevin phoned on Thursday and asked if Peter could come on Thursday, instead of Friday, when we’d planned for a visit from him. School’s out, and it seemed a good time for him to spend some time with us.  April was busy with some church work, so Kevin brought Peter and stayed for a couple of days, himself. Kevin’s work allows him to work at home most of the time. Modern life. He works on his computer and communicates with people in all parts of the world. On Friday, when he was here, he talked with folks in Atlanta and folks in the Middle East. And it all happened at our dining table. Occasionally, he has to get dressed up in more “business” type clothes and go into their headquarters for a meeting. But not often.

Kevin brought Peter and then stayed another day. He went back home on Saturday, and Peter’s staying with us for a couple more days. Not all businesses can work on this sort of schedule, of course. Our church staff, for example, are available to our congregation. We do not, of course, phone them every week or so, just to chat. They have lots of responsibilities and do not need to be overwhelmed with situations that many members can work through, on their own, or with other church friends.

On Friday, Peter and I went to the library. As we were getting out of the car, a man, who was turning away from the library door, called to us (in the parking lot), “Can’t go in yet! Closed until one!”

I’d forgotten. The libraries have training on the first Friday of each month. And, yes. “Closed until one.”

Peter and I got back into the car and went to Target. We did as much household shopping as I could remember to get (and not have any items that needed to be kept cold). By time we finished that shopping trip, it was just about time to get back to the library! Peter played some video games on the kids’ computers. I found some books I was interested in reading. And we had a nice, reasonably quiet afternoon.

Saturdays belong to David and Peter. They go to breakfast. They went to the Mayborn Museum (and Kevin, still at our house, joined them there). There were interesting new things to work on and work with.

Then, Kevin returned and got to work on some limbs, from the house next door, that were scraping (gently) on our roof. We pulled out the large folding ladder, and Kevin trimmed lots of small limbs from the tree, which is dying, most likely from the bitter winter we had a couple of years ago. The tree has put out a few weak leaves. It is obviously dying/near dead. It is a large (albeit dead) tree that should never have been planted there, between our house and the one next to us. We live in my childhood home, and my parents did not plant the tree. The next door neighbors did. And it’s not the neighbor who lives there now. And not the one who lived there before her. She’s had to have tree trimmers come and remove limbs that are damaging her roof. She’s recently had a large ash tree removed from her front yard. A tree that gave great shade all throughout the spring and summer. The Great February Winter took out her tree in the front yard as well as the one between our houses. And I’m very certain that the tree is her tree and not ours. My parents wouldn’t have planted a tree so very close to either house. There’s just not enough space. And, when you’re planting a new sapling of a tree, it just seems so small. The trees that my parents did plant, include a now enormous pecan tree, easily many feet in from any of the boundaries around the house. There’s a lovely, large crepe myrtle, again, many feet inside the lot’s edges. In the front, there’s a red oak and a pin oak, both having plenty of space around them. Lots of room for growing. I like to think that I’m almost as good at husbanding small and large and really large plants.

The sprinkler guy is coming next week to check on the sprinkler system. It’s rained rather regularly. But it seems like that’s coming to an end. Alas.