The Return of Sanity

It's been over a month since my last real blog post, and given the nature of all that's transpired in that time, it really doesn't surprise me.  My last blog post was just a poem and I don't think anyone other than myself cares for those (too bad).  It's about time I slapped something together isn't it?

We've finally gotten things quieted down around here.  There has been a lot of change in our house recently, and when I started adding things up I was surprised to find out just how many things have happened.  All the activity also spanned a greater amount of time than I was aware of.  In other words, it was fast and furious for a while around these parts.

Here are some of the key points of all the turmoil from my perspective--pretty much in the order in which they happened:
  • Dane moved back home in early December.  It was mainly so he could save up some money and not have to pay rent where he was living.  But before he did so, all my stuff had to be moved out of that room into the garage.  It was mostly a storage room at that point and we needed to be able to put a bed back down and he obviously needed enough room to live in it.  I was resentful.  After all--all my stuff (junk to Suz) was going to the cold, damp garage.  Would it ever return?
  • During the next week or so following the room preparation several loads of Dane's furniture-type stuff were put into temporary storage in the garage.  Our truck was directly involved more than once, but Suzie did the deed during those times I believe.  It seemed that most of that activity took place in the evening hours.  Sometimes I think that everyone else in the world stays up until midnight but me.
  • Dane moves in.  It took me no time at all to realize I liked having Dane here because he's so social.  He talked, laughed, and related stories all the time.  Conversely, Keith is a ninja.  He makes appearances like a flash bulb.  Poof! and he's gone again.  Anyway, during this time Dane still worked a construction job up in Edmonds so he had to get up fairly early.  I was more than a little concerned (it's my way of saying worried) about our interaction in the morning and how it would work out bathroom-wise and all that, but it went fine.  It's also my quiet time and I was hoping that wouldn't be disrupted.  It didn't.  It was fine.  I'm thinking he worked there another week or so and that job ended.  Back to quiet mornings.
  • Throw in a little holiday turmoil, but not much. (Nobody in this family celebrates it but me, but that doesn't mean I don't do a fine job of fretting over stuff all by myself.  I do.)  Gift-giving went fine, but I still have a lot of holiday turmoil that bounces around in my head.  Traditions, events, family interactions all weigh on me, and in the end always turn out to be non-events.
  • Early January brought Denny and Heather's new daughter, Taylor, into the picture.  That meant a lot of activity around here for Sue while she helped with things and took pictures and such.  That was pretty easy for me.  I stayed home.
  • (During all this time Dane's wedding plans are still evolving.)
  • Sarah had a birthday in late January, and I fretted about what to give her.  She's now drinking age, so I gave her a nice meal out at Azteca with a celebratory margarita.
  • Also in late January Dane found a new job--at the same place I work.  I was happy for him, but inside I had no idea how he would work out.  He hasn't had any work experience like that before.  I hoped for him to be a good reflection on myself and Suzie.  (He is doing great by-the-way.)  I also fretted about the fact that it meant the two of us would be competing for time and space in the morning as we readied for work.  That ended up being fine too.
  • Dane get's he and his bride-to-be's new home finalized.  They got lucky finding that place!  We make several pickup truck trips with his stored goods from the garage in preparation to them moving in after they're married.
  • Monday before their wedding we evicted Dane and move him into his new home.  As Sue would say, "You go now--bye bye."
  • Tuesday the room Dane formerly inhabited got a complete, whirlwind makeover from Sue in preparation for her parents, Flynn and Maggie, coming for two weeks.  It was now a real guest room, complete with artworks on the wall.
  • They came the next day.  They showed up long after I went to bed but I heard them.
  • Dane stayed at his new empty, topsy-turvy home alone all week before his wedding. He kept company with all sorts of boxes and piles I would suppose.  I don't think he was home all that much though--if he wasn't working he was visiting his beautiful fiance'.  He did fine on his own and was never late for work.  He still used us for his food though--both daytime lunch-making and eating dinner.
  • Sue did an excellent job of finding me some killer shoes and pants for the event.  She gets embarrassed about how I dress and didn't want that during her son's wedding.  Can't say I blame her.  Nice, black slacks, and nice designer Italian shoes--both like new and compliments of Value Village.  I was dressed as well as George Zimmer!
  • The big wedding. Whew! Glad that's over... The amount of girly stuff going on was driving me nuts.  The planning, crafting, organizing, buying, phone calls, meetings, and all that stuff was mind-boggling.  Throw in fits, tantrums, and worrying by one of them when things either don't go right, don't go at all, or they just don't know how they're going, and it was a mental stew in our house and Rachyl's house both.
  • Then there was the wedding wind-down. For the following week there were pictures getting pored over, food items divided up, unused items returned for refund, and all sorts of things.
  • The final step in the mix was when Flynn and Maggie left to go back to their paradise in Kauai.  The house suddenly went still.
Like Suzie's blog said, "Whew."

It was interesting having Flynn and Maggie here.  It's unusual to me to see folks their age interact with their computers as much as they do.  They did what Suzie and I always do:  Set up hiz & herz laptops at the dining room table and call it 'command central' from that point on.  Flynn, being of Hawaiian descent, lives for warm weather, so naturally he was smitten with the comfort our wood stove kept them provided with.  Still, they had to wrap themselves up plenty in their bed at night time.  Denny graciously provided them with full use of one of his vehicles during their stay.  Because they used to live here and knew so many people we expected they would have been out and about a lot more playing "catch up" with all their old acquaintances, but I guess the weather and our comfort kept them closer to home.  There were also a few times when one or another of them was feeling under the weather for whatever reason and chose to stay close.  Sorry about that folks (not that we had any control over that sort of thing).  The last thing we wanted was for either of you to get sick for any reason.  I fixed Flynn up with some new family tree software, and gave him access to my library login information  and he was like a kid in a candy store.  His love and pursuit of his genealogy hobby fueled him the last couple of days they were here, and from my perspective, a lot of progress was made along those lines.

It was fun, but I'm sure they were as happy to have their home back as we were ours when it was time for them to return to the land of wild chickens and pineapple.

Hey, now we get to descend on their world in a few months!