For 38 years, I’ve looked at this view from my uncle’s front yard. Years ago, there was no golf course, and I would walk across the street to pick walnuts. My sister Shari once threw a rock at me standing right here and opened a gash on my eyebrow. Back then, there were no plants in the front yard, there wasn’t even a driveway then.

Update April 2021: This was at 288 Placer Drive in Goleta, California. Some years ago, around 2009, my Uncle Woody Burns and Aunt Ann Burns sold this place and moved back to Buffalo, New York. A few years after that, my uncle passed away on December 16, 2012, at the age of 88. Just recently, I called my aunt after finding a phone number for her and learned that she’s still alive. Contact between all of us became difficult due to a situation that wasn’t able to be resolved (old people getting strangely stubborn). It was great hearing her voice, and I wish that Caroline and I could pay her a visit and offer her a hug.