Up Chucking...

03/01/2009

The title isn’t quite what immediately comes to mind here.  Yesterday The Nancy and I got together with family to celebrate two birthdays, her dad’s eightieth and grandson Jared’s tenth.  The entire group consisted of, in addition to The Nancy and me, daughter Jackie and son-in-law Ken, The Nancy’s mom and dad, Jessica, Justin, Jared, Jon-Luke, Jessica’s BFF Anna Kay, and a couple of Jared’s buddies and nephew Ben.  Last among the guests, but not at all the least, The Nancy’s younger brother Charles and his wife Michelle.

Charles, aka and affectionately known as “Chuck” is a piece of work, a one of a kind, a man of a certain “Je ne sais quoi.” Chuck is a rotundish, middle-aged, burly, John-Goodmanesque, good natured man.  He appeared yesterday on February 28th wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and shorts, which is the standard year-round dress code for this forty-nine year old boy.  Not long ago I wrote about maturity and “You are never too old to be immature,” and how I fit the mold.  Well, Chuck fits the mold with me, and I think it is why I love him so much.  An evening with Chuck is nothing but grins and giggles spiraling down to belly laughs.  The company arrived at the house at 4pm.  At 4:05, Chuck had a beer in hand, at 4:15 he had another, and so on and so on.  This Hell-of-a-Guy joined the fray and began to indulge – mistake #1. 

There in not a human on this earth that can keep up with Chuck.  I have never met a man who can down beer after beer with no visual effect.  Every time I was about finished with one beer, another was waiting to take its place.  I attempted to hang with the big guy throughout the evening, but as darkness descended upon the earth, I had to give it up.  No mas!  Shortly after the company left, I was more than ready for bed.  It was 7:30.  I just can’t hang with the big boys anymore, and, God knows, I just cannot up Chuck.

And that is all I have to say about that…