(Sunday Paper, Year V, Issue 29)

I’ve done a lot of maturing over the years.

I used to think when someone moved out of the neighborhood it was my fault.

“What did I do to offend them?” I would wonder.

I’ve since realized that being my neighbor is low on the list of reasons why someone might decide to pack up their whole life in boxes and find another place to live.

(But, it’s probably still a factor.)

Recently a couple of houses in the neighborhood have been put on the market…and while we didn’t cause the moves (as far as I know), we have certainly benefited from one of them.

This is neat because it’s something new and exciting to write about in the Sunday Paper for a change…since we’re still mostly staying at home, and there usually isn’t a whole lot to report out.

But one of those houses for sale across the street was bought by Kathy’s sister, and moving day was this past week.

So now our neighbors are my sister-in-law and my newly-turned-one-year-old niece. (She turned one on Tuesday, and they moved in on Wednesday…and we had a little socially distanced birthday party at the new house on Saturday.)

In the picture above that’s the moving truck in front of Kathy’s sister’s house, and above my head is our house. I figured I would give you visual proof that they’re right there.

It is all very new and exciting for all of us, but the girls are especially excited about it. They’ve been back and forth a bunch doing some babysitting and helping unpack the house.

I guess when I say ‘girls’ I should specify that I mean ‘my daughters’, because they’re all girls. Kathy, her sister, our niece, and our daughters (and even Tate!)…I guess I’m a little outnumbered in these two homes.

But I’ll let you in on my grand plan: Since they all like being together so much I’ll just wait it out and some day maybe they’ll all move in together in one of the houses….

…and then I’ll have a whole house to myself.

Notes

*Not a whole heck of a lot else to fill you in on. Baseball starts this week. I’m going to watch the games, obviously, but I can’t get all that excited about it. I’ve said this many times - I don’t see it reaching its natural conclusion without a problem developing, and I’m just not sure it’s worth it. And I’m really bummed that it’s looking more and more likely this will be a problem for the 2021 baseball season as well.

*(Update: I’m adding this update late Saturday night - I watched a couple of innings of the Mets-Yankees exhibition game tonight and now I’m pretty excited to have baseball back, I must admit.)

*A new addition to the backyard summer since I wrote this ‘brochure’ has been an inflatable pool. It’s fun to sit outside on a 90 degree day and watch the girls have a good time in the pool. (And sometimes dip my head under as well.) I’m glad we got it.

*My oldest daughter and I have been watching ‘Parks and Recreation’ lately. We started with Season 1, Episode 1 (obviously) and are in the middle of Season 4 right now. We still haven’t caught up yet with where Kathy and I started watching the show when it was on live. But it’s really amazing to me how they developed the characters and watching how everything unfolds, knowing how everything ends up.

*(Also, fun story, one time I called it ‘Parks and Recreation’ instead of ‘Parks and Rec’ talking to a teacher friend of mine. It’s a real mouthful, and she made sure to point that out. “No one calls it that.” Haha. Good memory.)

*It’s been a while since I threw this out at you - you can follow me on Twitter at this link! Also, if you have come to me through the Facebook page, thank you. If you don’t already Like the Facebook page, you can do that here. In addition to the Sunday Paper postings each week I’m still posting a picture/story every Wednesday. I’ve managed to keep that new and exciting all quarantine, I think.

*Hope you have a great week!