A Guest!

When I talked to my cousin yesterday about my uncle coming here, Vince said “No way is he going to do that because he wants to be there watching what’s happening to his house” but I think, with him being 88 years old, no water, no electricity, no restaurants, absolutely no conveniences at all, I figured he’d come here. We got the call this morning that he’s ready to come here . . along with three dogs. Rita does not get along with those dogs (it’s her – not them) so Vince is going to drive about 4 hours, which is halfway, meet them, bring him back. I’ll stay home with Rita and get some food cooked. Then Monday or Tuesday, I’ll take Rita and go back to Missouri.

My uncle could be here a week, he could be here a month or two. I feel bad leaving Vince here to cook and help with my uncle but Vince said he’d rather Rita be somewhere she’s comfortable and he needs to stay here and work.

For those who remember how hard it was for us to find a place to live in Texas, and all the whining and complaining I did about all the house deals that fell through, it was in about mid-July and my aunt (who has now passed away) called me and said “Why don’t you bring your knitting and Speck and go stay in our lakehouse.” I was so touched by that! July and August are the prime time they would be using their lakehouse and, though they would still come there if I was there, that was so giving of them to offer. I didn’t do it but the kindness has never been forgotten. I feel like this is a small way I can repay my uncle for that generous offer, though he is welcome here any time, whether they had offered their lakehouse to me or not.

So, packing has been put on hold. I should have taken a “before” picture. The master bedroom is still normal. The second bedroom – we took the bed down, took the mattresses to the dump and are using that room for stacking boxes. The third bedroom has a double bed that’s only been slept on maybe 4 nights but that’s where I was piling things I didn’t want to pack yet; wasn’t sure if I might need them here, or wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep them. You couldn’t even see the bed for the stuff piled on it. One side had boxes of stuff to be donated.

This morning I have gone through all that stuff, Vince has the donation stuff in his car and he’ll drop that off next week. The sheets are washed. The furniture is dusted, the floor is vacuumed. We’re as ready for company as we can get at this time in our move!

It’s funny because when we lived in Kentucky, my aunt and uncle were near and said they may come by. I said “Give me a bit of notice so I can clean house” and my uncle said “Yes, housekeeping was never your strong point!” That was 20 years ago and my housekeeping skills haven’t improved but at least he knows what he’s getting into! The best part – we have electricity, good cold air conditioning and running water and that’s something he will not have had for four days/nights by the time he gets here.