Today’s my brother’s birthday, and a big one: the turning point in life when hard-working cake makers recommend you switch from solo candles to a pair of numeral candles (one of them reusable for the next decade). Had a nice talk on the phone with him earlier, Is. leading us in a speakerphonic “happy birthday” song. Will hand deliver the card on Saturday when we get together.

Seems like a few short years ago he (right) was hassling me on the porch of our grandparents’ home on Drummond Island, waving that pop gun in my proximity (without pointing it directly at me because that was against the rules), firing off a cap or two to keep me afraid.