Leadership

Today I spent the day with my 1st cousin Brendan and his new wife Alexis. We went to Old Tucson, where they shot such films at "The Three Amigos." When we arrived the first monsoon of the day came through. It was a downpour and they were thinking of closing the place. But they stayed open and the three of us ran through the rain to see a show at the main saloon. We started out as the only people in the audience other than the workers coming in out of the rain. After the rain let up, the sun began to shine and we trudged through the mud to see Clint Eastwood sets, and "Little House in the Prairie" dresses. Also a few funny shoot outs and a traveling salesman.
After Old Tucson, we went back through the Saguaro National Park and stopped at an overlook and the view was amazing. (I'll upload those photos tomorrow) Then we saw the next monsoon that was about to hit Tucson with it's awesome lightening. As we drove into town we stopped in a parking spot as we waited for the rain to stop, thinking we could run into the restaurant for lunch, but we didn't stay very long becaue the water started rising to the level of the car doors. The whole area was flooding. We drove to get away and the water kept rising higher and higher. There were rivers rushing through the streets.
We finally made it through the rivers and stopped at a restaurant and ate a pretty good mexican meal. One of Alexis's co-workers came to pick her up and Brendan drove me back to our relatives house to stay. But as we left the rain started again and we had to drive through yet another monsoon and a few other rivers. Then we stayed in until the rains really stopped.
The reason why I put leadership as the title of this post is becuase I saw that quality come out in Brendan today. Brendan is the cousin I don't really know. We would speak at family gatherings, but that's it. I always thought of him as a tad bit wierd and no one that I could talk to. However, today proved different. He is nothing like I expected. He always was looking out for our best interest. He was kind and caring and it wasn't a show, in the past I thought that he would act that way in order to get attention and suck up to various family members. Today I learned that he is a genuine guy. He was more like my dad than I ever realized and I spent the whole day just marveling at how much I wished I had gotten to know him better in the past.