Since we moved FlaMan back to his home state of Michigan (in 2018), we have often visited him on our trips up and down the Great Lake State but our visits have always seemed optional or could be short ones. Now that his living situation has changed, at least temporarily, we visit whenever we can.

I dunno exactly what’s in FlaMan’s future but HEY, today we had a very pleasant visit with him, where he was sitting up watching TV and reported various escapades of increased mobility, not quiiite like The Commander’s Mad Midnight Hoosegow Underwear Washing Adventure but a bit heartening if probably also a bit dangerous.

What I REALLY liked about this visit was the discussions he and the GG were having. All about FlaMan’s long time (and long time ago) career as a machinist (a talented one) and discussions they had with their dad, an auto engineer whose career overlapped the early years of robotics. And then they got into Rubik’s Cube. When we arrived, FlaMan was dealing with an old Rubik’s Cube that was missing some parts. The GG got to looking around his room and there under his bed was one of the little yellow pieces. He found the rest of the missing parts in other places and, quick as a wink, FlaMan had his cube put back together. So they discussed Rubik’s Cube and its history for a while. (The GG is in the pic, not FlaMan and that is only part of the cube, which they were dissecting at that point.)

I have no real interest in either of these topics but it was fun to sit there and listen to them talk about something other than the usual stuff, which we won’t go into. If I have a role in these conversations, it is mainly to listen and occasionally translate as they both have a bit of hearing deficiency, which is not helped when there is a noisy oxygen musheen and a loud TV in the room. In FlaMan’s defense, he wanted the TV turned down but couldn’t get the remote control to work. I feel his pain and the GG managed to fix that problem.

At the end of all this, there was NOTHING in my refrigerator and I’m sure I left it that way on purpose. But what to do for dinner? Go out to eat? Naw. Order Chinese? Naw. In the end, I went to the Plum and got prepared chicken Milanese and pesto to make with noodles. I have frozen farmers market peas and salad from the eastern yooperland farm stand. Oh! And I had forgotten that my mouse usually works late at the Plum on Wednesdays. Or maybe I forgot it was Wednesday. Upon my arrival, I encountered one of her co-workers, who alerted mouse to my presence, so I got to hug my daughter too.

FlaMan is a brother of my heart if not my blood.

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