Native-esque

This is a shot from the playground next to the high school at Randolph & Hamline (I don't know the name...) just as a soccer game was being called due to lightening. What a gorgeous evening this was.

The sky here in Minnesota is absolutely beautiful. Watching the clouds is better than watching a movie - the weather changes, the clouds are so alive & active. It looks like rain over the next few days - we could use it - and I'm anxious to see the show.

Returning from vacation and getting back into our routine has been a grounding for my mind. I'm feeling like a St. Pauler (St. Pauli?) Walking down Fairmount after dropping the kids off at camp, waving to folks I see just about every day, stopping to pet another dog (while trying to keep Atticus from becoming too - ahem - friendly with the poor pup) - all of these things make me feel so right here.

Well, a right as a lefty like me can feel.

I guess I mean I feel like I'm in the right place at the right time. I think the kids and Gerry feel this way, too - they say they do - but when there's such an upheaval in our lives it's hard to know for certain how we feel about anything.

When we came back from Duluth there were small black paper bats taped all over the kitchen, hanging from strings. We laughed and laughed - and they made us feel VERY much at home. Our friends who had been watching the cat - now re-christened Gigi the Brave for her fearless slaying of the dreaded bat - put them up as a welcome home for us.

Being pranked in such a gentle and funny way is good.

I stopped by the Bravo Bakery (free wifi!) today to pick up a piece of green tea cake (I'd noticed it a few weeks ago and wanted to bring a piece home for us to try... It's delicious, by the way) and sitting outside was a nice mom with her two children.

She looked SO much like my friend from back home, Ami, that I had to stop and look twice. She's a trifle shorter, but in many other ways she could easily be Ami's cousin. Wave of homesickness.

We chatted briefly - they just moved here less than 24 hours ago from Ann Arbor - and I found myself telling her some of the great things on Grand ave, and what a wonderful place this is - on the way home I kicked myself for not offering my email address. I felt like a native. Well, maybe not entirely like a native, but pretty durned close.

I bought a bike on Saturday at a yard sale. It needs new tubes, and the brakes could use new rubber thingies, but it has 3 speeds and it's a girls' bike. Two things I was looking for (if I couldn't have my snazzy 10-speed boy's Motobecane...)

Today after the oncologist visit (he's very happy with Gerry's progress this week) we picked up the dishwasher we bought last month and now it's stored in our garage along with a cooktop from ebay and a microwave/vent unit from an appliance sale. Little by little we're getting the things we'll need for our kitchen re-do squared away.

We're trying to get things set up so that the lion's share of the work will be done while we're in Rochester (and we'll just return home to a beautiful new bathroom and kitchen... [cue music])

Comment Note
The comments have been a WEALTH of information - thank you to all of you who are making such great suggestions! They've led me down some interesting paths as I try to find a place for us to light while in Rochester.

We do have to take Atticus into consideration - he'll be with us down in Rochester. Yes, this is a case of sending the kids away - but keeping the dog with us...

Your advice and help and the stories you are all sharing with us via email and comments are so touching and very humanizing.

Thank you ALL for your care & love - and for being part of this amazing fiber-lovin' community!