Changes

Life is a series of changes. Most of them are so gradual they are barely noticeable unless you look back over a period of years. Other times, the changes come swiftly or even unexpectedly and life is never the same again. We had a couple changes this week that we knew were coming but they happened the same day.

In October it will be 49 years since we moved into the house we built the first year we were married. We had a list of things we wanted to do "someday" and began the next spring by seeding grass on the lawn. As the family grew, we added bedrooms and bath upstairs, built a separate garage (and enlarged it when the boys were teenagers), fixed up the basement, put shutters on, and added an enclosed patio. The last thing on the list was to blacktop the driveway. It finally happened. They came on Tuesday to get it ready and the asphalt was applied on Wednesday. We will never have to rake stones out of the grass again when the snow drifts melt. 

While most of this was being done, I was off on a play day with Grayson. I started keeping him one day each week when he was about two months old. He was just a little bump in my cradle.

But he grew fast 

and we had a lot of good times together.

He liked to help bake and work in the garden.

Next week he will start kindergarten and go to school every day so the visits will have to stop. Yesterday was his last weekly visit so I decided to do something special to mark the occasion. He's all into trains right now so a trip to Strasburg Railroad was just the ticket. He jumped up and down when I told him we're going for a ride on a real train.

We both enjoyed the ride and topped off the day with lunch at McDonalds on the way home. Then we came home to watch the machines working on the driveway.

When I look at the time ahead of me I feel at loose ends. I have finished all the writing projects I had started, Grayson won't be coming anymore, and my best history collaborator passed into history himself on August 8. What am I going to do? I need a new project. 

Jab! That was my conscience telling me I need to get off the computer and begin with housecleaning the patio. It's time for that end-of-summer job. Okay, okay. I'm going.