Happy Birthday Scott

5/1/2017

I just wrote a wonderful blog for Scott.  I must have clicked a few keys too fast, or something and have lost what I wrote.  Madness.

Scott is our middle child, who is sometimes maligned.  I was a middle child also.  Neither the oldest or the youngest.  But, I think middle children get the short end of the stick.  I don't think parents ignore these children, but they will never be the "first" child or the "baby" of the family.

Scott is 37 today and I have no idea where the time has gone.  It seems like yesterday when he was a little boy.  Scott was born with dyslexia, but while that may have defined him as a child, it no longer does.  Reading and writing were difficult for Scott, and I am pretty sure he has never read a book just for pleasure.  Scott has a very successful career and has a good number of clients for the computer company that he and Andrew started 19 years ago!

Scott is tall and lean and reminds me of my Dad in many ways.  He has a receding hairline and straight, thin hair like Dad.  Scott keeps his yard beautifully maintained, and he loves the patterns of a freshly mowed lawn.  Dad did as well, but the difference is that Dad had a normal-sized yard that could be mowed with a push mower.  Scott lives on acreage, and uses a tractor for his lawn.

From an early age, Scott developed what has turned out to be a life-long love of Christmas lights.  As a child, he found large (and I do mean large) nails and pounded them into the walls of his bedroom.  After they were in the wall, he strung lights around the room.  The nails left holes obviously, but we decided that once the holes were made, there was no need to repair the walls, unless and until we were selling the house.  We have a picture of Scott standing on a stool as a young boy decorating a very small tree in our front yard.  When we came to Maryland, Scott was dismayed at the lack of lights in our neighborhood.  We were friends with a family down the street.  Scott offered to hang lights on their house, if they would buy the lights.  They did and he did!  When Scott lived at home, our house was ablaze with lights and I'm pretty sure that planes flying overhead could see them!

Scott's other passion is trains.  And steam locomotive 1218 is his favorite.  If I knew the reason why, I actually don't remember.  We have taken a few short rides on steam trains, and he absolutely loves doing that.  Years ago, and I know I won't get the facts straight (so no need to edit this part Jeff), but Jeff took Scott somewhere where there was a train that rain on a short track.  Scott was able to "drive" the train that day, and I know that is a good memory for him.  To this day, Scott always has a train that runs around his Christmas tree.  

As a young boy, he somehow connected with a group of men, who like him, were all in love with trains.  He went to these meetings, wearing the traditional garb of train men - stripped bibbers!  

Through watching Jeff, over the years, Scott can and does do electrical, plumbing, hang drywall, put in wood floors, and paints like a pro.  Jeff learned all of his skills from his Grandfather, and Jeff in turn passed along these skills to Scott.  

So on this year special day Scott, I want to wish you a happy birthday and I hope you eat cake.

Love you always, Mom and Dad.