the hideaway

We closed on our little place at the beach. We're calling it the Hideaway, after our favorite barbecue honky tonk. After all the hub-bub, the closing went well and ended quietly. We got the keys to the place and Mom started cleaning it. Curt and Luke put the kayak in Lake Osprey (that's the lake we're on), and paddled around. We hear there's an alligator in there, but not worry. You'd be "lucky" if you get to see it. Otters also like to catch fish there, and I hope we do get to see them.

As I was vacuuming the bedroom, I had a strange feeling. Somebody I'll never know used to live right here. Who was he? I think he was an older guy. Had butterflies on his bathroom mirror. A green moon hanging over the doorway. Little snowflakes on the window. The neighbors say his daughter and granddaughter also lived there for a while. Poor guy died six months ago, and left his family to figure out what to do with it all. I think they were glad to be done with it. His family didn't come to the closing, so we'll never know.

The whole neighborhood seemed very excited to see us moving in. Many folks stopped by to say 'hello' and to tell us about themselves. It's a quiet little community. We took care of that as soon as Luke and Eli got out of the car.

To fix the bad fill dirt problem at the water's edge of our property, a crew removed and replaced twelve dump trucks of dirt. That's a lot of dirt. You should have seen the junk they pulled out of the land--concrete slabs, asphalt, chunks of stuff. We still have some land issues to fix, but it's going to be a great place for the guys to grow up. If the gator doesn't get 'em.