Breather

In-laws were just in - five days, left this morning. Next up is my sister and the nephews, arriving in a few days. I've been getting the basement set up, doing some between-visits cleaning that needs to be done, trying to take some time to just decompress a bit. Listen to some music (that isn't oldies radio), sit down with a guitar in my hands and mess around for a bit, start looking at some stuff I'll need for musical commitments for the fall.

Visits are good, but I'm not naturally social. I'm always very happy when people decide to come, but it takes a bit out of me. The little reset between visits helps.

Soon the house will be full again. My oldest nephew is spending a couple of nights visiting one of his friends that moved here a year or two ago. I know that feeling keenly - just before I turned nine, my family moved two provinces east. Most of my childhood friends simply gone. One of them I met again a few years later at a Scouts jamboree; another, I called up when I visited the city again mid-teens, and we ended up watching, of all things, X-Files: Fight the Future in a mostly-empty theatre. We'd connect another dozen years later on Facebook, in those early days where it wasn't awful, but we haven't seen each other in person since. So I get it: you need to seize these things when you can. I hope he has a great time. And in the meantime, we have a bunch of days planned out for the youngest: the zoo, driving to a nearby town around a lake and going swimming and getting ice cream. I'm happy to just play the doting uncle.

Then, the rest of summer. Nothing big planned. Saving money and vacation days for next year. A tentative tripped planned with two of our closest friends. We'll see.

gemlog