uncle_brian raze years ago i started noticing something. he never called my father my father. ever. he always called him my brother. a funny little malaprop. he still does it. in a way, i think it fits. we've always been more like brothers than father and son. it's good to see that age can't diminish his manic spirit. he's always been a nut. this is a guy who, at his sixtieth birthday party, told me to hop up on his back and then effortlessly sprinted through a room full of people, giving me a high-speed piggyback ride while i laughed until i thought i was going to pass out. and i was not a kid anymore by then, nor was i a light load to carry. i see more of his father in his face all the time. i'm not sure time turns us into the people who made us, but it can make what they gave us easier to see without squinting. 170701 ... raze one of my favourite memories of him popped into my head out of season: at the house before this one, maybe sixteen or seventeen years ago, we've finished christmas dinner. he picks up my mandolin and starts to play. he doesn't know how, but it's tuned to an open chord. c sharp, i think. all he has to do is strum. i start playing along on the piano. he sings about how the fluids and near-solids that leave his body turn red every time it rains. "oh big bertha," he sings. "won't you come out tonight. come out tonight. come out tonight." i sing a high harmony, and while my dad is in the kitchen washing dishes, he sings, "shoo bop, shoo bop." not "deck the halls", then. but festive just the same. 211006 ... raze "you probably heard about the crazy weather we're supposed to get today," my dad said. "if it isn't safe where you are, i just want you to know you're welcome to stay here." "thanks," brian said. "but i'm not worried. i like skydiving." 230405 ... raze he and my dad get together for breakfast every other sunday now. brian said he wasn't going to be able to make it this time. he wasn't feeling well. my dad called him and asked if he needed anything. we figured maybe he caught a bug. come to find out he ate two pounds of cherries. in one sitting. his stomach hasn't been right since. 230704 ... raze it's his birthday today. he's seventy-nine. there are pictures of him on facebook at a sports bar with some friends and family. he's wearing a shirt that says, "the older i get, the better i was." 231115 what's it to you? who go blather from