Does It Feel Like Home?

I just called our best seasonal friends who were our next-door neighbors down at Hastings, and guess who's there, throwing back Rum and Cokes? That's right, old baldy himself! :)

Tom went into town today with a full load for the dump and a short shopping list for me, and obviously made a (very fun) stop on the way home! He needs and deserves it, tho - work this past week was pure hell for him. He was trying to initiate new systems that were hard, at best, even down in the Cities for a Top Fortune 15 company . . . and, up here, with a staff of only three who - by no fault of their own - simply don't carry the technical expertise and experience that he needs in order to implement these new methods/programs/etc. makes it really, really difficult. And ugly. Trying to introduce "Change" to folks who have known only one system for so very long is often not readily accepted (like now). Last night was the first night he was home before 9:00 PM - how much this schedule smacks of the crazy times in the Big Shitty is surprising . . . and all too familiar!

But, I digress: does Swamp River Ridge feel like home yet? In the sense of place, yes. In the sense of home, no. Those of you who know me well know that I am the self-declared Queen of Domesticity . . . and not having my home organized, put together, and generally feeling "homey" is a drag. I wish that I could be further along so that Tom would have a comfortable place to crash those nights when he does get home at a decent hour. Yesterday, I was able to clean out half of the living room area so that I could wash and wax the floor. Then I moved our large couch in and placed an end table at each end (hmm, that must be why they call them END tables!) - one with an oil lamp and the other with a new-fangled ELECTRIC lamp! When Tom got home, he saw the couch, threw himself onto it, and said, "Ahhh, I've been waiting for this all week!"

Talking about that new-fangled invention called electricity leads me to telling you a bit about our electrical system. When you rely on an alternative energy system, you learn a lot about energy consumption FAST!

(Let me post what I've written so far. When I'm on a computer strange to me I'm always a bit paranoid that I'll lose when I've spent precious time writing.)