Meet Big Brother

Well, here I am again - better late than never I guess. I've just been soooo busy I haven't been doing much updating or reading. So bear with me, okay?

We put the final coat of paint on the walls downstairs yesterday and Ole painted the bedroom upstairs. Then the guys put down the carpet in the living room and moved in some of Big Brother's furniture. So it's starting to look like living quarters finally.

I guess I've never written too much about Big Brother so you don't really know him. He and I are very close, but it certainly didn't used to be like that. I'm the baby of the family (spoiled, of course), and he is the middle child and the only boy. Our sister, who was the oldest, died in 1993 from a heart attack at the age of 56. Way too young to do that, but she was an extremely heavy smoker and although she was thin as a rail had a cholesterol number of 362 when she died. The sad part was that she didn't even try to do anything to lower it. She had very unhealthy eating habits and ate candy like it was popcorn. But - that's about her, and I'm supposed to be telling you about Big Brother.

There's 5 1/2 years between us. When we were kids we used to fight like cats and dogs. But something magic happened when he went away to college - we became best friends and have remained so ever since.

When he was growing up he was always on the small side, and didn't grow much when he was in high school. So as a result he was always picked on by the bigger kids on the school bus. Not a pleasant situation. Again, something magic happened when he went away to college - he grew and he grew a lot. He grew to the point of 6 foot 2 with blond curly hair.

And he was/is smart. He went to school to become a rocket scientist (electrical engineer). He truly was a rocket scientist because for 30 years he worked for the military and designed missiles and other weapons that were used in the Vietnam war. He went to Vietnam as a civilian a number of times and taught Navy Seals how to use some of his invented weaponry. Some of his inventions saved many American lives.

He lived in California during those years and when he retired at age 50 he couldn't get out of there fast enough. After searching for some time for the ideal location he moved to New Mexico, up in the mountains to a peaceful and beautiful location. I love it here and wish I could convince Ole to leave Minnesota and move here.

He was always kind of a "catch" for the ladies, and still is. Unfortunately he's been married four times, twice to the same woman. Like I said, he's extremely intelligent, but not with the ladies. He always ends up getting involved with the same type of controlling personalities and then things just didn't work out. After four divorces he's lucky he had enough left to retire on.

He currently has had a lady friend for about the last 8 years. They don't live together and neither of them have the desire to get married. She's a cutie and a very nice lady. It's so nice that they have each other for companionship at this point in their lives.

Well, Folks, my task today is to clean more sheet rock dust and help move in more furniture. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll all be off and running to other parts of the Southwest.

Love, Lena