The day is beautiful with a cool breeze and no blasted humidity. The pages of the papers waved in the breeze and needed something to hold down them as I sat on the deck to read. I noticed, when I was outside, that the spawns have stripped two feeders of their seeds so I have to pick up some more today. Yesterday I picked up the animals’ food and treats, that would for Miss Gracie and the Misses Fern and Maddie, which means one item on my before I go list is crossed off.

Being engrossed in a book lets time pass without my noticing so I bought a new book yesterday. Maybe a couple of days will go by without my counting the hours. This last week of waiting is killing me. I think I have everything that isn’t clothing all set to go and ready to be packed except for the last minute recharging of my iPad. When I tested the e-mail on it yesterday, it wouldn’t send so I had to reconfigure. It then sent just fine. I doubt I’ll have much chance to use the e-mail as wi-fi is pretty uncommon, but I wanted to be set just in case. You’ll have to check here every three days or so as I do hope to post.

The first time I was ever away from my parents for more than a night or two was when I went to college. Being eighteen and as brash as most eighteen year olds are, leaving was no big deal, but I was secretly reassured as my parents were always just a phone call and a few hours away. I don’t remember when I went home for my first weekend, but I don’t think it was all that soon. What I remember most about that weekend is when I walked into the living room the house seemed strangely different, almost as if I were the guest. Maybe that was the first sign we all have that we are starting to pull away into adulthood, into our own lives. I know as I got older I came home from college less and less, except, of course, for summers.

I figure the pulling away was natural, and we all did it maybe without even realizing why. Later, when I was really far away on my own, I did just fine. It was all that practice during college.