Exodus

We traveled back to Superior this week, after I had spent four months in the cool Dillon Beach air. The warm (hot) Sonoran desert days feel good after all that frigid cold of the Pacific. So this week I've found my legs again. Yeah, they paled up quite a bit since last May when I last wore shorts. Bill's look incredibly tanned from his summer spent mostly working outside on the house, even in 115 degree weather! (The grandsons have a little action doll in the toy box, dressed in khaki shorts and a canvas vest. Bill and I found it on the beach years ago when Charlie was a baby for him to play with. Charlie immediately named it "Jeff". When Bill returned from Arizona looking so brown this summer, little Ronnie picked it up and asked, "Is this Grandpa Bill?" So it's amazing how good a tan can make you feel (You Action Figure-You!)

The house looks luscious, much better than I remembered. It welcomed me back every square inch of it. In my absence, Bill had the upper and lower driveways poured with new cement and a back yard, under the deck poured as well. He has painted it a light grassy green, so even if grass won't grow in the hot Arizona summers, it still looks like we've got one. He covered over the major part of our upper deck so there's more shade and added misters to cool the air. Already, the parrots are overjoyed about their 'rainforest' in the Sonoran desert and have spent five hours a day enjoying their new climate. He took extra special care of the garden I had recently planted before leaving and now the tiny shoots of fountain grass are four feet high or better and brimming with blooms; the Mexican sunflowers just about took out all the other flowers they grew so hard; and the Mexican primroses are still showing no end in blooming their little pink hearts out. Who knew stuff could grow so well in this heat if they had enough water? I was overwhelmed.

The house, if anything, seems more settled, more content, and yes, more powerful than it did before I left. I guess it's happier with us and knows we mean it no harm. Last year, we had several people walk in and say it felt like the house had wrapped its arms around them like 'a big ol' hug', and this year the feeling is just bigger and more fulfilling and THERE. As if, the house itself has assumed an entity. But... a good entity all the same. It's still welcoming and warm and "glad to meetcha!" And, yes, the house likes the changes that Bill has worked on all summer long. We've plans for more rock work in the front yard and some more garden beds for planting, so we won't be idle this winter. Plus, it will give us reasons for more Boonie trips to collect more rocks.

Okay, so now, I promise in the next few days I will write about the Wonderful Wedding of Tad and Erin last week. I promise I won't be so slow to blog. And even though I'm going to be missing my Little Men (the grandsons) I will include some stories about them from this past summer. Promise!