roddy

I've been having a hard time writing lately. You must have noticed. I think this is because I've let anxiety monopolize all of my thoughts.
I think I need to lighten up a titch.

I'll tell a fun little story about my brother, Roddy.

Roddy is a wonderful guy. Anyone can see that. However, he isn't terribly perceptive, and he does make a lot of poor decisions. One of these decisions has resulted in his now living in Britich Columbia. I'm actually kind of jealous, because it's unbelievably pretty out there. But I am stuck in Hamilton. But hey, at least I'm up before noon today.

This one time, years ago, Roddy was going through a weird little wizardry phase. Don't ask me. But he had decided to make home made candles! Now he made the hot wax in mom's pots, I believe. Which in itself was probably ill-advised. And he poured the wax into boxes, which would shape the candle. But the bottom corners of the boxes were not sealed completely, as they often aren't when it comes to cardboard boxes. So the wax started leaking out the bottom and getting everywhere. Roddy, in a panic, puts the candles in the kitchen sink to leak everywhere. Do you know what happens to wax when it goes down a drain? I'm not sure exactly what happens butI do know wax hardens and would probably result in having to replace pipes under the sink. Somebody started yelling this at Roddy and he prompty removed the "candles" from the sink and dashed to the trash cran, spilling wax all along the way. The kitchen was an effing disaster after this. I can't remember what happened with the sink. It might have been fine, but still. I think it's a funny story, and it very much illustrates my point about Roddy. He's a wizard.

Oh! Another one! This one is way better.
One time, years and years ago, Roddy was babysitting me while our parents were out someplace (and I don't know where my other brother was). Anyway, did I mention that Roddy is 6 years older than me? He is. So Roddy had been doing a lot of research online, this is when everyone first started getting the internet at home. Roddy had learned how to make home-made rockets online. So he suggested we send one to the moon! I was all about this, because I was young enough to actually believe my rocket would make it to the moon. So I suggest we write a little note to the aliens (I had a weird, weird obsession with aliens, more about that some other time). So that's exactly what we did. We made a home made rocket and we slipped a note to the aliens inside of it. And we went to send it.
But we couldn't find a lighter anywhere!
We searched and searched, but to no avail. No lighter any place. Now, Roddy used to light his cigarettes off the toaster when there were no lighters around. So this is what he had in mind for lighting the rocket. So off to the kitchen we go, and we stick the wick in the toaster and press the button, and after a second the rocket starts sizzling, ready for take off. The wick was very small so the rocket totally went off in the livingroom, bouncing off all the walls, the floor, the ceiling, the curtains. And there were black streaks all over the place when the rocket finall fizzled and died. We cleaned up a lot of them but some of them stayed until mom and dad painted the livingroom again.
We lit another rocket and we did make it outside, and our rocket to the aliens went about 30 feet before falling to the ground. The aliens never did read what I had to say.

So many fun memories with Roddy. He really was a dream brother when I was a kid. He actually enjoyed hanging out with me and indulged my childish fantasies, probably because they were his childish fantasies as well. And there are a lot of similarities between us, even though sometimes I deny that there is. We are both a little vindictive, but we both mean well, and we're both artistic and we are very susceptible to heartbreak. Of course, I would never make candles in the kitchen sink or light a rocket off of a toaster. Those are Roddy-specific qualities.

We were talking the other day, he calls from time to time. And he was off to the beer store with ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS worth of empties. Like, empty bottles of beer. How many bottles would that be?! That's like a THOUSAND!
That's my brother :) He's adorable.