Greetings from Graham

Hey Camp Birthday,

Right now it's about 2 weeks from camp, get pumped!

This summer has been an interesting one for me to say the least. I have been working for my grandfather at his ranch in Graham, Texas. For those of you who don't know, which I'm guessing is most of you, Graham is about 100 Miles west of Dallas, basically the beginning of West Texas. My g-dad has about 100 cattle and around 200 acres of land, and I pretty much do whatever handiwork needs to be done.

Another major part of my job involves driving my grandfather to visit other property he owns around the area and taking him to doctor appointments. He's 86 and isn't the best driver in the world. We go to a combination of Granbury, Fort Worth, Burleson, Benbrook, and Dallas almost every week. Each of those cities is at least 80 miles from the ranch in Graham, so I've clocked in a respectable amount of driving to say the least! So essentially, I'm like Charlie in the movie Scent of a Woman (sketchy title, I know), and my grandfather is like Al Pacino's character, except for the whole blind thing. Sorry for those of you who didn't get that movie reference, I had to try.

My grandfather has been struggling with a sore on his leg that won't heal as well as nerve pain due to lack of blood flow reaching the wound. He's had 2 surgeries this summer to clean out arteries in his leg to help improve blood flow, and fortunately after the second surgery he's doing significantly better although the pain and sore haven't completely gone away.

So that's been my summer in a nutshell: cows and small towns. Graham during the week and at home in Dallas on the weekends.

I'm looking forward to seeing the best camp ever in 2 weeks, Birthday represent!

-Andrew