The last 15 years of my career I moved 4 times. I spent the first 16 years in the SF Bay Area. When SBC bought Pacific Telesis Group, my job moved to San Antonio, TX. We were in San Antonio 6 years, 4 months, 20 days and 18 hours. I remember this because we arrived in San Antonio at 4:30 PM on Millennium Eve, December 31, 1999 (no, I don't want to debate whether the Eve was actually one year later). We left San Antonio for Central New Jersey at 10:30 AM on April 20, 2006, which was my wife's birthday (some birthday!). Six years in San Antonio is a long time -- that's a story for another post. 2-1/2 years later we moved to Dallas. 3-1/2 years later we moved back to the New Jersey. Each move was a new house, all of which had a certain charm, but none of which seemed like Home. When the retirement offer came up, Susan and I realized this was our chance to make that last move, but no place we'd live so far felt like Home. As much as I loved SF (the first 40 years) and living no more than the length of her apron strings from my mother, you can never go Home.
Too much has changed.
Susan had an epiphany while scanning family photos, and realized that all our kid's photos from birthdays, Passover, Christmas, and Thanksgiving included extended family members. She recognized that Home is where the grandchildren are. So we're off to Seattle to be near our son, his wife and our granddaughter.
As is our custom, we went in for a weekend house-hunt and left with a house under contract. We listed the house in New Jersey and sold it 4 days later. Slam-bam, thank you m'am. This Seattle house is just a house -- not our Home. Now we have a chance to settle in to Seattle and see how we like it before we commit to a Home. The Home. I never understood it quite before, but Home is where Family is and we've been itinerate too long.
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