first day of summer and it's all relative

 Happy first day of summer - my favorite season!

Just too bad the heat and mugginess brought thunderstorms today.

And that my neighbor's mulberry tree that we loathe is dropping tons of

mushy mulberries all over the side of our house, including the patio. And

the roof and gutters of the house. Unfortunately, this tree is monstrously

tall, so we can't reach the high branches to trim them back to the neighbor's

property line. I don't think we're going to have much of a choice but to

hire someone to come and trim this tree. This is the same neighbor that had

the rotting fence.

On to more positive things...yesterday, me and my mom took a long

drive out to the south side of Chicago to visit with some relatives that

we don't get to see too often. My mom's aunt - my great-aunt Sylvia - is

92 years old and now has severe dementia. I don't think she really knows

who I am, and she seems to sometimes recognize my mom. But what was

so heartwarming to see was how she truly knows and loves her younger

brother, my great-uncle Willie. Willie, his wife, and two daughters drove up

from the central part of Illinois to visit with Sylvia, as Sylvia was actually

asking for them recently.

Sylvia's son, my second cousin Greg, is one of the adored persons

in my life. We became very close when I was a teenager and lived

in Kentucky. Greg was going to university there, and he'd come and stay at

our house on the weekends. I didn't have my driver's license yet and since we

were pretty much stuck in no-man's land, weekends were pretty boring. Greg

would come to our house on Friday night, bearing his fantastic collection of

disco albums and a big bag of Doritoes - a junk treat that my mother rarely let us

 have. Greg would take me dancing to the disco in the closest decent-sized town,

 which was a 30-mile drive. We had the best heart-to-heart talks on these drives.

He was just so cool.

 Greg has the best design style. He really should be an interior designer; he's

that good. He has not only helped me with some of my color and decorating

choices, but now he's helping my mom re-do certain rooms in her house as well.

Greg lives with his mom (he's her caretaker) in a brick bungalow and had the

basement remodeled into a small apartment-like space for himself.  I love

his bedroom - it's masculine and neat and Greg really knows how to incorporate

modern with antiques. He has great taste in art, too.

Some more art pieces on his living room wall. I would've taken more pictures

of the living space, but Greg's basement recently had a flood (that must be hereditary,

too!) and so he hasn't completely put his living room back together yet.

It's hard to get good photos of anyone's bathroom space unless their bathroom

is ginormous, but you can see how Greg even incorporates prints

in his bathroom. I also love the bright blue walls with the black and white tile.

I would like to think that perhaps I got a little bit of my love for interior

design and the "talent" for it from my beloved cousin. 

Happy weekend!