[Elspode]

Three months. It has been three months, nearly to the day, since the PODS container was dropped in the driveway of 13130 Sycamore in preparation for getting the hell out of Dodge and on to a fresh locale. I had finally decided that 37 years in one place, in one suburban town, was enough. I was finally prepared to leave the known for the possible, the staid for the transitional, the familiar for the mystery.

Yesterday at about 7:30 PM, I handed over the keys to the house that my mother and stepfather bought from my aunt and uncle when I was not quite 13 years old - to a perfect stranger. I had just taken one last walk through the place where I smoked my first joint, got my first blow job, built my first marital bedroom, raised my only birth child, nursed my paralyzed mother, held my mother's wake...and found that I could, in fact, leave it to someone else, someone who might make their own memories there.

Today, for the first time in three months, I did not walk into my Grandview home and pack something, clean something, paint something, throw something away. I carried nothing from house to car for transport to my new house. I picked nothing up from the old front yard, watered nothing that grew in the flowerbed, turned off no forgotten lights or dripping faucets.

Today was my first full day living solely in my new home. I awoke in Raytown, went to work from Raytown, returned to Raytown, helped my son put things away and hang pictures in Raytown. Tonight, I sat on my front porch and listened to the cicads and the small fountain make their buzzing, burbling sounds. I stood in my back yard and realized that I might actually be able to mow it and pull its weeds this week. I smiled when I considered that I will be able to attend band practice for the first time in a month.

My grapes are ripening on the vine, and my winemaking friends are jockeying for position to get a share of the harvest. As summer wanes, a new life begins for my family and me. Thanks to everyone who has thought of us, sent us good thoughts or major juju.

It worked. We're here. At long last, we're *just* here.