4th of July has always been a blast (literally) with my family. We get to celebrate a little extra on this day for it’s Uncle George’s birthday (his 92nd this year!). For around a decade now, we’ve been going to my Aunt Bridget & Uncle Tom’s house out in the Sugarland/Rosenburg area. It’s a nice tract of land with lots of room to run, play and shoot off some fireworks. They have been kind enough to have it there every year. We used to go to Uncle George’s cabin in New Waverly like clock work.

I’d actually like to take a trip up there since it’s been at least 15 years since I’ve been. I would be remarkable to see what’s changed and what I can remember. Like the times my mom would stop at the turn off for the cabin (around a mile away) and let us hop out of the car and stand up on the back of the Buick Station Wagon and hold for dear life to the luggage rack as she floored it across the railroad tracks and down the dirt road. I can only image how small the pond on his property is even though it seemed so huge to a 10 year old. This brings back some fun memories. I’ll have to add more of them to this entry throughout the year.

Uncle George is a crazy character. All he wanted for his birthday was to watch some baseball and amazingly enough there wasn’t any on TV at that moment. I had my cousin Diana throw in some video from ESPN of Garrett (brother of Diana) pitching in the Little League World Series last year. George was so excited to watch them play. It might have been his first time to see it, but I think he knew who was playing. People think George is losing his mind sometimes. I think it’s all an act. I think he likes tricking people. He’s quite aware of who’s around him and what’s going on with them. Whenever Elizabeth walks up to him, he immediately starts speaking Spanish to her. Every now and then he tells me about the pine tree he planted at his cabin when I was born and named it after me. I wonder how tall ‘Eric’ is now? Crazy.

Happy Birthday Uncle George!