I love living in the south. Here it is the beginning of March and it’s been in the 60’s everyday. This past weekend it reached to the 70’s. Meanwhile in the frozen tundra of the north, they still have snow on the ground in my home town of Akron. While my wife and I enjoyed the weekend outside doing a little yard work, my parents were still huddled in their house battling cabin fever. Yep, I love living in the south during this time of year. The two down sides are that pollen season is just around the corner. That’s the time of year when everything turns yellow and you almost have to wear some sort of mask to breathe outside. The other downside to living in the south is that I am away from my family and I miss out on some family events.

My niece turned 16 this week. I haven’t mentioned much of my siblings. I’m the youngest of three. The oldest, my brother, has two daughters, both teenagers. The middle child is my sister and she lives in the south as well. We got along ok growing up, we had our fights like most brothers and sisters do. My biggest problems was the hand me downs growing up. My brother’s clothes were out of style by the time I could wear them, and it just wasn’t right for my parents to try to pass off some of my sister’s stuff down to me. I shared a room with brother until he moved out when I was 18. Up to that point I had to put up with his snoring and a cramped room that wasn’t quite big enough for the two of us to be in there at the same time. He being the oldest meant I got booted out the majority of the time. But, we had some good times together; we would gain up on our sister and picked on her until she got mad, and my favorite memory was when my voice was changing and he had me talk to one of his girlfriends on the phone and pretend it was him. I moved away not too long after he had his first child. It’s hard to believe that the same guy, that when you walked into our room his half was all neat and clean and my half looked liked a war zone, has a 16 year old daughter. It would be fun to be there watching him teach her how to drive and see him react when a boy comes over to pick her up on a date. Last I heard from my mom, his hair is turning a little grey.

While my sister and me our able to drive around this time of year with our windows down enjoying the weather. Our brother is up north teaching his daughter how to drive the icy roads. As much as I would like to be around to watch him stress out over it, I at least have the comfort of knowing that I am not on the same roads with one new teenage driver. Even though everyone down here seems to drive like one, but that’s for another blog.

By the way I have enter a comic strip contest to try and win a sydicate contract. So if you like to see JT and the gang in the paper; log on to http://www.thecartooniststudio.com/ ,click on the "So You Wanna Be A Cartoonist Contest" in the upper left corner, type "Parents Visiting" in the search bar and click on the thumbs up. You can vote more than once. Please vote for me.