Of all things I got a facebook friend request from “Joe” today. That’s not his real name although he used it for a long time. We were in the same school grade and he lived up the street from me and once for some reason he came to our shabby little bungalow, took one look around and said, “Finnelsons is rich”. The Commander had a mixed reaction to this. Anger (mild) because he mispronounced our name and WTF because our house did not indicate wealth in any way shape or form.

At some point “Joe” met with an accident that took out one of his eyes. I can’t exactly remember what happened. When we were in high school, he was in swim class once when his glass eye fell out. It’s really hard to describe our high school pool but it was very small and girls and boys swam separately. Us girls wore fugly swimsuits. Boys swam nude. That’s probably illegal nowadays. Anyway, “Joe’s” eye fell out and the teacher ordered everyone out of the pool and made them sit on the sides and look for the eye. Someone eventually spotted it and the teacher said, “Go get it!”

The funniest thing about this is that I think he knows my cousin the Mean Old Grunchy Old Grinchy. I’m not sure how it came up but a few years ago I mentioned “Joe’s” name during a conversation and the Grinch was like, “how the heck do you know Joe?” Okay. I grew up in Sault Ste. Siberia but left town to go to college and live on The Planet Ann Arbor although of course I still own property in the yoop and spend time there. The Grinch was an air force “brat” who lived all over the place as a child. He settled in Siberia as a young adult after his dad retired and he helped his parents (Radical Betty and Dcuk) build a chalet on our family beach. I love all of my cousins but the Grinch and I have always had a strong bond. But I grew up in Sault Ste. Siberia and he did not. We mainly knew each other at the cabin in those days.

The Grinch has been a construction contractor in my home town for many years and so has worked with many people I grew up with. I suppose because I have a professional career and live and raised my kiddos in an upscale college town, he probably doesn’t realize how much of the scrappy old south side Sault Ste. Siberia kid is still in me. Since he didn’t grow up there, he doesn’t really know where I come from, at least not from my perspective. At any rate, I welcomed “Joe” to my Facebook community and I refrained from asking him if he knew my cousin, whose real name is Ed, just like “Joe’s” real name is Ed.

Photo credit to Lizard Breath who is at the Hoton Lake group home with her sister and our raccoon.

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