Son,

Your nephew is staying with me today. The boy, he was 9 last month, and I mowed the lawn and played catch with a football. I’ve been looking at those patio fire places – I can’t bring myself to spend the money. Then I had one of those ideas that strike me occasionally.

I have a stack of bricks out by the garage. They were once used to line a sidewalk. The boy and I stacked them in a wheelbarrow and hauled them to our concrete patio. Then we built a fire pit. I had cleaned up the yard yesterday and I cleaned up a pile of yard waste. I sorted through the waste and removed the sticks that would not compost. The rest of the waste I used for mulch around some flowers. I stacked the sticks. How convenient?

I am thawing some hot dogs, the weather is cool, when the sun goes down the boy and I are going to build a fire and roast some hot dogs. Yum! – hot dogs and grandchildren – does life get better than this. We’ll be thinking of you.

Dad (and the boy – he is standing here editing my work.)