This Is Before Sunset, Pulling Up a 3rd Chair for the Dog, the Radio He Blared with 8os Music, and the Blankets He Brought Out for the Two of Us

Sitting in the ol' garage on Amalfi Drive has multiple memories: Chris & Lori across the street, Karl next door, all the beers by the garbage cans, the neighborhood kids, the thunderstorms, the mosquitos. That's why after dinner last night, after we also swung by Cynde and Mike's, that Dad and I settled in the garage. He grabbed Budweiser (what else is new) and a couple of blankets. We sat in chairs, watched the skylines, and kept an eye on Karal. I laughed when he got us extra beers and somehow found a radio in the garage to blare music from the 80s: Toto, Dirty Dancing soundtrack, and other banal music. It was sort of precious, especially as Karal took his chair, so he pulled up another one and sat in that.

Oh, if his garbage cans and lawnmowers could talk...the stories they'd tell. 

And watching Karal on the front line with memories of Dusty, Tizzy, Mokie, Baby, and Glamis just pulls the zipper up on time. New dogs. Same routines. New neighbors. Many routines (mostly beer) retired. The number of cans and bottles that garage has seen...

...the same garage that became a summer home for Casey during her recovery during college: spiders, wheelchairs, Claim to Fame, and many a night finding entertainment in that garage. 

The Mayor of Amalfi Drive, still waiting for a Sherburne pitchfork for best lawn to be jabbed into his front lawn (it's why he mows every day).

This is the core of my CNY upbringing. The Core. The base. 

And I'm lucky to experience once again while I hide from the University insanity.