Last year, I spent a week visiting my sister 11 of 12 in Portland, Oregon. This year she came out to visit my mother, a half an hour north of me.

In addition to spending time with family, she went to her 15th year high school reunion. A lot of the guys she went to school with were hardly recognizable, with a lot of weight gain, grey hair, and baldness. I guess I'm lucky that time has gone easy on me to outward appearances. Eight years older than her, but I'm pretty sure my classmates could spot me in an instant.

A few days after the reunion, she visited the home of a friend. The friend was married, had a couple kids, and lived with her husband in the country. I was struck by her description of the property. It sounded like a small slice of paradise. Her friend lived on nine acres of land, mostly covered with forest. They rode four-wheelers out to one of two ponds and sat there talking for a while, and watched while bats came out of the trees and dived at the insects hovering over the surface of the pond. One dove at my sister's friend's head. Being who she was and where she came from, this just prompted laughter.

We've had some very nice weather here for the last couple of weeks. Temperatures topping out in the low 80s with very humidity. Guess it'll get rainy and cold soon enough.