Back and tired

My daughter and me, giving the "daddy eyebrows" that
we are both known for doing when we are irritated.

In case anyone couldn’t guess, driving from Wisconsin to Las Vegas and back is tiring. When it’s done in a mid-size sedan with four occupants on the way there, and five on the way back, it’s downright exhausting. And when one of those occupants is a 10-year old girl…well, you might be able to imagine how glad we all were to get home.

So, after several days of driving, hotels, bad nights of sleep, and a constant level of tension, followed by four days of absolutely lethargic recovery, I am back at work. And I am welcoming the break.

The whole purpose of the trip was to see my daughter graduate high school, and then to bring her and a good portion of her belongings back home with us. This mission was a success, and really, having her home with us makes it all worthwhile. I was pleasantly surprised that her mother didn’t make any trouble, and was even quite civil. More on that in August, when I am not legally forbidden from speaking ill of certain parties openly.

This trip kicked off a rather busy summer for us. As I may have mentioned, we are buying a house. My wife and I have been married for six years. When we first got married, we lived in a condo. When the economy tanked a couple of years later, and I lost my job, we ended up filing a BK, and losing the condo. We are finally getting back up and dusting ourselves off.

The only saving grace is that the condo was in her name alone (she bought it before we even met), so the foreclosure is not on my credit. So, with a VA loan, we are going to be able to buy a nice, old house with a lot of modern upgrades. Our closing date is July 12th. Which means the next few weeks will involve a lot of packing and planning.

Fortunately for me, my wife is very organized and a bit of a control freak (but not so much as to be heinous about it), which means that the majority of my contribution to the packing and moving will involve heavy lifting and not much else. I can handle that. We also have the advantage of starting earlier than we did last time, so it should go relatively smoothly.

As you can imagine, this past week has not been very productive. I managed the minimum of work for my latest class, and that was about it. No writing, no reading to speak of (though I did manage almost an entire John Carter novel on audio during the drive). I’m hoping to make some progress on a few things this week. But, until we get moved, and settled in, it probably won’t be a whole lot. The good thing is, I will have a little “personal space” where I can retreat from the family, and write unhindered and uninterrupted.

Until then, I will do what I always do; open a file, and chip away during my down-time at work mainly, with an occasional bout at home, if I can.