Homecoming!

Yea, the kids are home! Kind of strange how empty this place seemed while they were gone. Hurricane Fay came through in August and dumped a full foot of rain in two days, flooding the ground floor thoroughly and making hubby and I have to sleep on the fouton on the living room floor. We liked it being so handy so much that we stayed there for a month before putting the room back together. It was just us, who’s to care?

I never quite figured out how to cook meals for just the two of us either, the leftovers just kept piling up until the fridge was completely overloaded. It all eventually got tossed into the compost bin. When the pears ripened Da Bear came on in to feast, totally destroyed the trash bin to get to – whatever was in there he thought he could eat. Since we don’t toss food scraps, I’m guessing it was stale, flat, watered-down drips of beer from cans waiting for recycling.

Grandson only got to work a few days at his Dad’s comic book shop, but enjoyed it a lot. Didn’t earn anything for college, of course. His dreadlocks are dreadful, sort of a sickly green color from too much time in the neighbor’s swimming pool. Did manage to get his internal clock turned entirely backwards by the weird schedules of my sister’s family. Sister – the one who has a regular day-job – didn’t want to let him go, he’s the only one who could deal with my ‘headstrong’ 5-year old niece, who adores him. My sister has learned more about how NOT to give in to niece’s mad demands from my dear only-child grandson than she ever learned by just being a parent!

Daughter is exhausted from her nursing ordeal, very saddened by our old friend’s condition. She did get to accompany him to Costa Rica, which was a lot of fun for her despite 12 hour a day nursing duties. Met lots of cool ex-pats and locals, who took to calling her “Shiny-Girl” or “Tough-As-Nails” (because she could put up with the “Hard Man”).

They’re both very glad to be home, just before the autumn leaves peak. The fuel situation kept our Western North Carolina tourist season at bay all summer as people decided to just stay home, our October leaf-looker season is also looking to be a bust this year as the economy melts down. Tourism is the #1 industry here – at least half the citizens make their living off visitors one way or another – so we will of course suffer worse than most areas of the country. If it’s mere “recession” out there, it’ll be a full-fledged depression here.

So we’re going to reconnoiter about what to do from here to keep our home and property, have enough money to buy food, etc. Maybe start a new home business, sell my car to get daughter’s car fixed (needs an engine), whatever is necessary. In the meantime, I’m delighted to have ‘em home!

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