The Glorious Return of Sunday Lunch Bunch

I begin this week celebrating the two week anniversary of Bad Back 2021. Sunday morning at 4:00am I woke up with delightful spasms that sent me to Patient First for a consult with an enormous doctor who had to be at least 6’5” and not a pound lighter than 280. He laid his substantial hands on my back and said, “Oh my, that’s gotta hurt.” Turns out that the big guy was very familiar with back pain, having endured plenty from an old football injury. As I tried to describe my issues, he finished all my sentences for me. It’s nice to be understood. I am now on muscle relaxers, some mild pain medication, and have employed anti-inflammatory patches, none of which work when you have just woken up in the morning. Took my first does of the day fifteen minutes ago and am now awaiting relief.

Despite yesterday morning’s unpleasantness, I made it to church yesterday in person for the first time since before Thanksgiving. It had been a combination of travel, the holidays, post holiday caution, crappy weather and frankly...inertia that had kept us away. It was time. It’s been a year now since all this started. Warmth is in the forecast. Winter will soon be in the rear view mirror. No more sofa-church. Being in the building felt like homecoming. Afterwards, we even got the old Sunday Lunch Bunch band back together. We made a reservation at Anokha. Everyone was there except for Leigh Anne Fort, who was visiting her sister. The fact that Gordon agreed to come without her tells you something about how hungry we all are for human interaction and anything that feels like normalcy. It was Pam and me, my sister Paula and her husband Ron, their son Ryan, and Gordon. We took a picture and sent it to Leigh Anne...

Just like in the old days, I got the Tandoori platter with extra sauce on the side, and hogged all the naan. I am a slave to old habits.

Check out my nephew Ryan. I have watched this kid grow up from an annoying little crumb-snatcher, to an obnoxious middle schooler, through the know-it-all high school and college days. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, I look up and he’s this incredibly handsome, smart, hard-working...uh...man. What the heck happened? Its becoming more difficult to refer to him by my preferred name...knucklehead. I have called him this for 20 years now. But as I sat across from him yesterday it occurred to me that he is anything but. That doesn’t mean that I am ready to retire “knucklehead”. I am his uncle which comes with certain rights and privileges, among them, the assignment of nicknames. But Ryan has navigated the first stages of his adult life during a pandemic with great skill. He has a good job, good friends, and one day is going to make some very lucky girl one heck of a fine husband. Respect. 

So, Ryan, if you’re reading this, have a good week....knucklehead!!