The World Has Changed

Thomas has a car! The car is a twenty-year old Oldsmobile Delta 88 in amazing condition with under 90,000 miles. It's comfortable, gets better mileage than my van, and, despite calling it a "granny car" (with a smile), Thomas loves it. I love it too; no more driving Tom to and from work on nights when I need the van. I get my car back! That saves me anywhere from 4 to 6 hours a week, not to mention gas and repairs.

And Tom is already enjoying the freedom of not having to ask for the car. He took a trip down to the mall with his friend Jeremy Tuesday night to get a feel for the car. Yesterday morning he took me into town to fetch my car (he'd taken my car to pick up his car while Karen and I were out and about yesterday). He looked very much at home at the wheel of his granny car.

Most of the time I'm freeing up will be spent on the house, of course. It always seems as if there is more to do on the house than can actually be done, and for long periods of time there is so little visible progress.

But now we can start seeing real changes. The siding is done, and we expect to have the sheetrock on the first floor started in a week or so (we're hiring someone for the first floor to save time, and finishing the basement and second floor ourselves, fools that we are). I'm buttoning up the last couple of things I need to do to get the electric company to hook us up, and hanging beadboard sheets in the first floor kitchen this week. And hanging doors for the first time in my life. There have been a lot of firsts for me on this house, and there will be many more.

The cold is coming early this year. There have been several nights below freezing and a couple of predictions of snow, though no accurate ones yet (well, okay, we got a few flakes, but nothing like parts of New York got). I'm looking forward to moving into a house that's easy to heat; even before the walls are up, you can tell that the house hold its temperature very well.

Now we just have to get into the new house. We'll keep you up to date.