My night was especially late yesterday, for I may not have made it into my bed until as late as 12:45 a.m. However, at least I held myself to a can of strong (8% alcohol) beer and a stiff shot of vodka.
My Edmonton cousin Doug had visited late in the afternoon on his way back home after a stay on the Island of 10 or so days.
Fortunately, I had texted my younger brother of Doug's imminence, and my brother arrived home from the bar maybe five minutes after Doug was into the house and being introduced to my youngest stepson.
It may have been as far back as 1970 when my brother and I last saw Doug ─ the only paternal relative we have any contact with. Back then, Doug was probably no more than 12 or so years of age.
That being so, he is maybe five years younger than my brother, and about eight years younger than I.
He visited with us for well over three hours, and had one beer. My brother and I had hoped to prevail upon him to at least sleep here for a few hours overnight ─ he could have just risen in the wee a.m. and let himself out, and continued with his drive somewhat replenished.
But he would not accept the offer.
I had my eldest stepson take the following three photos just before Doug left us. The photos were taken at 9:18 p.m. / 9:19 p.m. ─ as I said, I have no idea how he felt himself able to be leaving at that hour from here in Surrey to continue on with that long, long drive! Who would not have preferred a few hours of sleep, and then continue with the drive right around the first glimmering of dawn?
That is me at the left; Doug is central; and my younger brother is at the right in the white sweatshirt.
I feel myself to look unnaturally thin in the photos. I think that it is possible that due to the confinement of the images' borders, there may have been a little touch of elongation happening with my right arm, for I surely do not think that I should appear to be that scrawny.
Doug very much resembles our grandfather and even my father; and I can see some of Doug's mother and our aunt Evelyn in his features. Heck, he looks more like my father and grandfather than do my brother and I.
Here we all are back in 1966 when Doug's family came to visit my family:
Doug is the kid in the pirate hat; my younger brother is at the immediate left; and I am in the right background just beyond my mother.
Had Doug stayed last evening and kicked back with the drinks, then I would have quite eagerly indulged myself as well.
Alas, he left within an hour of my wife later arriving home from working at her friend's Thai restaurant, so Doug and she never got to meet one another. However, at least he met both of her sons.
By the way, since at least yesterday, I am unable to use the "Insert image" feature to add photos into my blog posts. When I click on that icon, it does open up a small window or popup; but the darned thing remains utterly empty of any options ─ it is entirely blank and thus utterly useless.
This is in my Firefox browser. When I save the post and then open it up in the Brave browser where I also have my Google / Blogger account set up, the "Insert image" function is perfectly functional.
Anyway, after my late night, I had my doubts that I would be able to have the time today to supply the daily minimum amount of content that I assign for myself at the latest post I have in development at any of my six hosted websites.
Fortunately, I did rise early enough ─ I don't think that it was yet 7:30 a.m. ─ to manage that task successfully. My wife rose unusually early and went downstairs to fix herself something to eat ─ her youngest son was up and soon to leave on his drive to work, so they got to share a goodbye.
The poor girl was having great difficulty sleeping, she complained. But after her snack and some time spent in the bathroom freshening up, she returned to our bedroom.
As it turned out, she was not expected at work today until 4:00 p.m., so she still had plenty of time to lay in bed and accumulate further bouts of sleep.
It rained quite a lot overnight, and on throughout the morning. The afternoon saw drying, nevertheless. My brother said that he had heard that we are due sunny weather at long last "next week".
While he was having his early afternoon bed rest to restore himself for his afternoon away, my wife rose anew. She soon enough readied to drive off and do some shopping, so I hurriedly had my first meal of the day and then sought a nap in our bed while fully clothed.
I needed the nap. I was in bed for well over an hour, rising to find that my wife was home and had meantime been doing considerable cooking, and my brother had left.
Finally it was time for my wife to also leave, and I soon got to work on a post in my private blog before beginning one here that I have continued with ever since.
Google Photos created a collage today from some photos that she took two years ago when she went to Rome to visit a sister of hers who makes Italy her home:
That is my wife in two of the photos ─ selfies, they are.
Here are the original photos ─ the boy with my wife is Daniel, her nephew (and son of the sister who lives in Italy):
That final photo and the second one above it are duplicates, yet each has a different photo numerical ID ─ one is simply "1036", while the other is "IMG_8695".
As for the columns, they are Bernini's Colonnade at St. Peter's Square in Rome. I had to do research to find this out, for I was not present in Italy, and my wife would never be able to educate me.
It is now after 6:30 p.m., and there have been numerous breaks of sunshine outside.
I hope I can get to bed early this evening, but that is going to depend upon when my brother arrives home from wherever he is drinking ─ and in what state he appears to be in. If he arrives home by 8:30 p.m., I may sit up with him and operate our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box to locate episodes of a few of the T.V. series we follow.
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