Dear Lady,

As I'm typing this I'm looking at my thumbs and I sustained cuts on each in the course of the past few days. On my left thumb I cut it open with a knife while cutting cheese last week. It was stupid. I should have seen the injury coming; I am an Eagle Scout after all. My right hand is even worse and an even dumber cut. It was a sausage injury. The last two sausages in the package were frozen together and in attempting to get them apart my fingers slipped and I dug a deep cut across the back of my thumb.
So there you are, two things you probably didn't know about me (other than you knew I had worn a couple bandages).
I had a beautiful time hiking with you and the kids yesterday. That's a rather lovely little place isn't it? I'm always amazed that it's vacant pretty much every time we've ever been there. It's unbelievable that if you make a location just a little difficult to get you it weeds out visitors almost entirely. I mean, it's a good thing for us, but a sad commentary on humanity in general.
Anyway, that was a tangent. I just wanted to say thank you for going out there with me. I had a really good time. It was nice to be in the woods and just relax and be inspired. I'm always trying to "be" some kind of person that I am idealizing at the moment. Whether an explorer, a filmmaker, a farmer, etc. Yesterday I enjoyed an entire day where I, miraculously, wasn't fettered by any of that. I just woke up to it. It was so nice. I just woke up and felt like I was in love with the day. I went on that hike and was simply in love with the woods, and my kids, and my beautiful wife.
I love you so much.
Here's a haiku I wrote while we were down at the bottom of the ravine:

A rippling bubbling
tumbling sound down the canyon
waterfall to the ground

Actually I'm just now realizing that the last line has too many syllables. I'm going to get in the shower and try and fix it and then when I get out I'll try and correct it and finish off this letter to you . . .

. . .



A rippling bubbling
tumbling sound laughing giggling
and splashing around.


.boy

Dear Boy,

I'm supposed to be gathering documents at my parents house so I can scan and email them to a social worker before they're due Sunday, but I've been avoiding it since 9 and now it's 11. I did make yogurt and take Auburn to school. And look through a Kohls catalog and use the bathroom an untold number of times. And eat pie and bagels and drink lots of milk and some grape juice. And dink. My parents and Kathy are at a doc appointment. I ate too much. Don't feel so well. Anyway. I will probably rush to get all the papers in my last 20 minutes here.  I'll have to do the scanning at our house. Oh well. Procrastination is my demon. 

I still like playing thumb soccer. I think it's funny that my guys are always falling over and running off the field and passing to the goal keeper and all that. And I just like to do stuff with you.  Lots of stuff. 

Love, 

Lady

Dear Lady,

Well, soccer was fun while it lasted. I'm sorry it didn't last a little longer but it was a fun something to do for the last week. I've tried it a couple of times without you: once against the computer and once with the kids, but it was never quite as satisfying as it was when we were playing it.
So what are we going to do now?
We're out of shows.
We don't much care for movies too often.
Video games aren't the way to go.
Maybe we need to do a better job of spending some of that time improving ourselves—you practicing ukulele and me practicing . . . Something. Piano? Not really sure for me.
Anyway, you're a real dream. It's not the most awesome thing in the world to be stuck at home every night—but it's an infinitely better prospect to be there with you. To be honest I would choose to spend every evening at home with you than spend every night on some grand adventure alone. For you are my grand Adventure.
I have loved seeing this country with you and I look forward to seeing the world with you. Life is long and we've got plenty of it left. Someday we won't have the luxury of spending evenings at home with our children safely tucked away. Let's enjoy it while we have it. And I'm also going to make a more concerted effort to enjoy these moments even when it's Nolan coming upstairs at the most inopportune of times.
Though I'd prefer to spend those times alone with you ;)

.A Boy

Dear Boy,

One thing I really appreciate about our letter writing is it can overcome our alertness opposition. As in, you are alert in the morning and often write to me then, when you otherwise couldn't communicate with me (as I am generally dead to the world at that time). I sometimes write to you at night long after you have drifted to sleep. But you don't really drift to sleep, do you?  It's more of a violent fall. 

Thanks for inviting me to play thumb soccer with you. It has been fun. I love to do things with you and laugh with you. And I like soccer. 

I'm home today. And I have a grand plan of cleaning stuff. Like everything. I may be asking too much of myself, but that's better than asking too little. I talked to my grandma yesterday about the chickens finally and she said she would like 3 Buff Orpingtons. I think I remember that's what you got extra of. 

I'm planning to be a good gardener this year. In conjunction with that goal is that I am going to dig a pond. What do you think I about the idea of lining the pond with big rocks to keep the mud down?  I just had that idea yesterday. Maybe that's too much work. My ideas generally involve inordinate amount of impractical labor. But we do have a U shaped driveway because of that, huh?  

I love you. And I miss you when you are gone. 

L

Dear Lady,

Listening to you laugh, in near hysterics, as we played FIFA '11 last night was worth the $5 I paid for the game (and so much more). Admittedly I just like the experience of a new video game in general, but playing with you was so much more fun than playing any game on my own. I just love seeing you smile and hearing you laugh (I'd pay any price for such an evening—at only $5 last night was a super-bargain!).
I happened to run into Olivia last night when I dropped stuff off at your mom's and she said that Ollie's family taps sugar maples. I guess Ollie's dad just built a sugaring shack. Go figure, huh? Maybe I can talk to him sometime about all of my questions.
Oh, and I'm not sure where their grey van was because Olivia was there but the van wasn't . . .
I was sorry to hear, in your last letter, that you've been struggling with depression again. I hope that it's never anything I do that encourages your depression. Of course my intent would be to alleviate every obstacle that feeds depression in anyone, and especially in you. I hope that if you haven't entirely overcome it we can do so together. I know that neither of us wants to spend another five years like we've spent the last eight. Not that all of the past eight years have been difficult. Quite to the contrary right? It's more the confinement we've each felt subjected to: you at home and me at work in a field and employ I don't much care for.
I love your new idea and trajectory for yourself. I am anxious to help you along this path in anyway I can. I'm still not entirely sure what it is is like to spend each day doing, but I now that I would love to spend my days helping you achieve this dream for yourself. Anything I can do. Just figure out how we can make it happen and I'll do what you need. That's what best friends are for, right?
I love you and look forward to seeing you smile more today. Have fun at your Uke lesson!

.a Boy