I have a cousin who used to live here in Washington, Washougal to be exact.
He is the reason I moved over here from Portland after I graduated college back in 1991.
He offered me a place to live at his house and we were roomies for a couple of years at least.
His name is Mark and he is a Stand Up guy.

He came in to town last weekend for a family matter and while he is here, he swung by and did a shit ton of yard work for me that I haven’t been able to do. I dug out the weed eater and got it going and he went to town.
Again.
I say again because he was in town last year when I sent out a plea for help and a whole bunch of friends and family showed up to clean the yard. Last year there was 9 of us total and it took 6 hours and 3 trips to the recycling place with yard debris to get the joint cleaned up.
I used to do it all by myself but those days are gone.
Mark is two weeks older than my younger brother and has been more like a brother than a cousin for a long time.
He reads the Blog to keep up with me because he lives in Texas now after he got married to a wonderful woman.
So Thank You again my man, it’s always great to see you and I’m looking forward to catching you again before you head back home.
Lova ya dude.
I love good people, good onya Mark
Life only grants you a few good friends They enrich existence
We have 4 Saturdays in the summer where a group from church asks our neighbors (not a great neighborhood and pretty much old folks retired from closed mills) if they would like us to clean up their yards.
Makes for a nicer world and sometimes they even come in Sunday for a service.
My neighbor is my neighbor.
Having just one person such as that in your life is a rare Blessing. The Lord does watch over you.