Uncles

I heard just a bit ago that my Uncle Neil's house burned down today in a fire. He is fine, and his dog (Cloudy) is fine, but he has lost everything. He will live with his sister for now. I am waiting to hear more details. Not a good day for him.

My dad has three brothers and my mom has two brothers. So I have a total of five uncles. Growing up, I perceived Neil to be my "coolest" uncle. He was cool for two reasons. First, he is deaf. In school, we learned sign language, and I was a pretty neat kid because I had a deaf uncle who actually used sign language. Second, he is extremely tall. About 6 foot 8 or so. No one else had an uncle this tall. This made me really special.

When talking about how cool I always thought my Uncle Neil was, I should add that I was terrified of two of my five uncles for reasons I cannot explain while I was growing up. I honestly cannot articulate why they were so frightening.

Bill just got home from teaching his course and has brought some terrific left-over snacks (frosted animal crackers, licorice, pretzels!). I am pretty excited about this.