Home, Sweet, (Temporary) Home. I’m back to the routine this morning after the Labor Day Holiday. It was not your typical weekend, filled with wedding activities for my wife’s youngest daughter. My job was simply to stay out of the way. She and her husband will soon be on their way to Maui, a honeymoon that we were able to arrange for them. While they bask in the newlywed limelight, my wife and I will be preparing to move out of our condo. Inspectors were here last week and contractors will arrive today, along with a cleaning crew. The past few days have also been occupied with pre-closing paperwork and conversations with our realtors. As I think about it, the only things that are “normal” about today are the bed that I woke up in and the route I ran this morning. I’m in a home that now really belongs to someone else. 

The new owners want me out of the house with the dogs this morning while they privately discuss some repair and remodeling plans. I’m sure the pups are up for another adventure. In the meantime, my wife is going to look at an apartment after her business meeting. I’ll do some additional searching this afternoon, once I get settled back at the computer. We will have to move fast on finding a new place, considering our travel schedule the next few weeks. We plan to officially close on September 24th, right after we get back from New York. We’ll then have a few weeks to rent our own home as out-of-town guests arrive, before we begin to pack. I’d rather have it this way than to be sitting here waiting for a buyer. We were very fortunate this time to find one so quickly. I’m certainly not complaining!

The wedding went smoothly. I’m currently constructing a wrap-up poem with all the details. It was great to meet the groom’s side of the family – more names to add to The Ancestry Tree. They treated us to an authentic dim sum brunch before we left the Bay Area. Many of my wife’s family traveled to be part of the ceremonies, along with faces from the past – old friends and colleagues of my step-daughter. She looked beautiful in her gown, as did her soon-to-be-married older sister. We’ll see them both again in two months here in Portland for wedding #2, where they will reverse their roles. Who knows where we’ll call home by then? Maybe something temporarily permanent?