DAY 045 – DESIGNING DANGEROUSLY
Consume Stories
As I’m picking back up with the project, I’m departing a wee bit from the Consume Stories heading above to tell you, beloved reader, a quick story. The Tibbs fam got back to Muncie last night, and we each dealt with being back in our home in different ways.
Being away from your place for two months can be odd, and you’re confronted with it once you arrive back on site. We were trundled home from the airport by Annie Devine, who dropped us off and told Beth to look her up when we had our bearings about us. We heaved our bags into the house, confronted by the evidence of a cat that had been sick all over the house, a yard and garden beds that return to a more natural state eerily quickly, and a general mustiness that recalled our house’s 60 year history.
At this point, we each dropped into our own particular rhythms and relationships with this place. Lucas got busy with Legos in his room right away. Beth turned on the AC. We stepped outside, surveying the garden and yard work ahead of us. I walked the perimeter and checked our fruit trees while Beth pulled weeds and adjusted plants in the boxes. That touched, Beth started cleaning with the urgency and precision of an operating theater, triaging tasks, trying to resuscitate the house we remembered leaving.
It was dinnertime, with nary a thing in the fridge but condiments, so I set off as hunter/gatherer and stalked some questionable deals at the grocery, trying to get all the staples for our first 24 back in town. Reacquainted myself with our family car--oh yeah, it’s a manual, this is what it feels like. First to Friendly Package for cold beer and a quick swing back by the house. Grocery now. Coffee...definitely. Sandwich fixins, milk and cereal, fruit.
Family fed, I put on the last record that had been played when I left, Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall. I started unpacking. I have found that if I don’t strike when the iron is hot, it’s very possible for luggage to sit half-unpacked for a couple weeks, both it and Beth staring me down with one very pregnant question.
Lucas had a tough time going down last night--I think we’re all struggling with adjusting from Pacific time and coping with the hot dampness of Muncie summer. The cats have taken up position on the suitcases still laying around. We are truly back, gearing up for this upcoming year and for that which awaits, like a landmark in the distance, sooner arriving upon it than we know.
To recall and tweak Miranda’s poetry, home is home is home is home is...home.