Quick Trip "Home"

We had a quick trip “home” this weekend, as we needed to clean out the house for closing.  On the way, my wife wanted a quick stop at the Mall of America, but due to the entire state of Minnesota being there and the Minnesota DOT’s decision to tie up much of 494 for road cleaning, our stop was anything but quick. 

We eventually made it to the house, cleaned out the remainder, with the exception of an old bar we had inherited from my parents.  We forgot it was there, and failed to account for it.  Given its age, it really needed to go into the garbage, but we put it in the utility room for the new owners.  Who knows, perhaps they’ll give it another lease on life. 

We took our old neighbors to a much owed dinner (they basically saved our house from frozen pipes and snowblowed I don’t know how many times) at our favorite Mexican restaurant, and ended up at the motel in Waconia.  We woke, attended one last mass at St. Joseph’s, and headed east for our new home. 

Some random thoughts: 

• I cannot believe the amount of snow!  The picture shows the damage that has been done.  Incredible. 
• The house, which I have not seen since September, seemed small and lonely.  Still, it was a place of great happiness for us, and I will miss it.  In some respects, I already do.
• We had some incredible neighbors that have evolved to incredible friends.  We’re very lucky. 
• We could have easily done a dozen other things and saw a bunch more people - there was just too much to do in such a short time.  Thankfully, we're only four hours away, and hopefully we'll make it back again shortly.
• I've been spoiled living in a town with only 100,000 people.  There were that many people at the Mall and on 494.  I don't miss the traffic - not at all.

The whole trip muddied for me the whole concept of "home." Right now, given this stage of life, I feel kind of like no place is home. Hopefully that changes as we settle in.