Guests are starting to arrive at our new home, but there’s little to show. Not much has changed since the day we moved in but a couple of chairs and a new bed. The rest is still waiting for a delivery driver back in Portland. It’s frustrating to have a vision about your new home that has yet to be fulfilled. It’s a futile argument on when it will finally arrive, but in the meantime we can make no travel plans. It could be any day now or even next month before we get that much anticipated call that our stuff is on the way. Please be soon!!! Home is now a hollow, empty place, where the dog is so desperate to find a comfortable spot on the floor that she curls up on a damp, temporarily abandoned bath towel.

We’ve had visitors during the construction stages, but my son and his family are the only ones to see the finished product. We have yet to befriend any neighbors other than a quick hello. Today, my sister will be our first house guest, but it will only be a short tour and lunch, since there’s no place to sit and talk. My son will join us on his day off work. I spent the evening with him shuttling his thirteen-year old son back to his mother’s house in Sarasota – a weekly tradition. It gave us a chance to talk after babysitting for his kids the day before. We will need time to adjust to having three youngsters in our house. My wife and I were both exhausted after our first attempt. The car ride helped me understand these children better, but I’m still not a very patient, nurturing grandfather. It will take some practice. 

My sister and I will be together in this area of Florida for the first time since we were children. Just down the road from us my grandparents owned a place in the Bay Palm Trailer Park. Maybe we’ll drive down there this afternoon to find its former location – on land I now believe to be a park. Perhaps she will recognize more landmarks than I did a few months ago when my wife and I explored the area. It will be a day of reminiscing about Ross and Grace who first led us both to Florida. My sister just bought a second home about an hour north of us on an inland lake. I think it’s fascinating that we both ended up living in the same area where we vacationed as kids. I’m excited – Company’s Coming!