A shout out to our third oldest

It's that time of year again!  Our half of the year.  Though that has expanded to include May, due to our daughter-in-law and our granddaughter, with the storms of Pride/Juneteenth being a period where we have to hold our breaths from Memorial Day to our third son's birthday. And then it begins!

It's tough to separate our third oldest and his birthday from Independence Day that is always right around the corner.  Nonetheless, we managed to have a nice little gathering for him.  He's at once difficult and easy to buy for.  Easy because, with very few exceptions over the years, he loves whatever he gets.  Difficult, because on the whole he says he's basically happy and doesn't need much.  Plus his schedule, full time work, going to school, keeps him more than busy.  

Once he planned on going into law enforcement.  Then he was badly injured and had to miss part of a year of police training, and it was during that time that 2020 happened.  As he said, someday he might reconsider the police force once the country has decided to agree that it's always bad to kill police, rather than today where it's obviously up for grabs.

Instead, after waiting a few, he decided to pick up the baton that my oldest had to drop and go into the culinary world.  For whatever reason, all of our boys - the three oldest at least - have always done well in the kitchen.  While none of them match our oldest and his natural gift for mouth watering fare, they each have their areas of talent and expertise.  After working in restaurants to raise money for college, he concluded he already knows his way around that business model anyway, had already received promotions, and why not make it official.

He did hesitate for a time.  He felt bad going where our oldest now cannot go.  But I told him it's his life, and he can't not go somewhere just because his brother can't.  Once he announced his intentions, his brother was, for the record, happy and supportive.

Of course it being our third son, much of what he has is from sheer brute strength of will.  He managed to finagle a job at one of the premier restaurants in central Ohio.  It works along with the Cadillac of assisted living centers in these parts.  One of those centers whose family gatherings feel like a WEF meeting.  The head chef is one of the best in the area, and it is one of the locations that culinary students are sent to be tutored in the profession.  As my son says about his own situation, he gets paid for what others have to pay to get.

But being him, he doesn't hold back.  At one point he felt he wasn't where he needed to be.  That he was valuable enough to the company that he should be farther on.  So he went to the top and said they had best step up to the plate or he's out of there.  And they did, giving him more than he was wanting.  I joked with one of his brothers that they should try that in their jobs.  One said he could do the same thing, but they would know he didn't mean it. But that's our third son.  Of the four, the big, boisterous AAA personality.  Not one to hesitate, he tends to plow forth.  So here's to him on his latest birthday, may many blessings come his way over the upcoming year. Happy Birthday! 

Holding his first nephew