Other random Erik thoughts

I forgot about his tendency to collect things. Erik has always collected something. His most famous collections were of bugs and rocks. He has quite the impressive bug collection which I need to find space on the wall for in the new room. His funniest collection has been rocks. For several years of his life he spent quite a bit of time in people's driveways examining rocks. He could find a lot of amazing fossils this way. When we went to Sweden, we spent several evenings on the shore in Gotland looking for fossils. We found quite a few actually. Then he had to decide which ones to take home with him as rocks are pretty heavy! It was sort of heart wrenching to see this boy sorting through a pile of rocks in our hotel room trying to decide. Rocks are heavy. Perhaps I have mentioned that before. Ask to see his Gotland rocks someday.

One time Charley and I were going someplace out of town and Erik was left with a neighbor to help take care of the home place, animals etc. These neighbors are great. They are sort of like a third pair of grandparents to the kids. Erik packed to walk down the street (which is at least 1/4 mile down the road) for his weekend visit. I walked with him and beat him by at least 10 minutes. When he got there, Charlene asked what in the world did he have in his bag, rocks? He gave a sheepish grin and nodded his head. She was surprised. It turn out they were rock lovers too and they spent the weekend looking at their rocks too.

I love the innocent love of a small boy. Rocks. That is so sweet. He may not appreciate this love of innocence that I have but it is pretty sweet. Hours and hours of time examining stuff in the yard. Perhaps we should steer back to geology for a future. He still loves rocks.