Back in the US of A

[I'm at my younger sister's house for dinner tonight, so I can use her high-speed internet connection to post something to my blog. At my mom's house, where I've been for the past couple of days, it takes a hundred years just to open my blog on her dial-up connection, so I gave up waiting on it to be able to write a post. So I'll be limited in my blogging opportunities for the next few weeks--maybe if I figure out how to post something via e-mail I'll be able to keep more current. Otherwise, I'll post something whenever I either have the time and patience to wait for the dial-up or have access to someone else's high-speed technology.]

We arrived at JFK on the heels of the first tornado to hit Brooklyn in decades, so the airport was clogged up with delayed flights and stranded travelers. Getting from the airport to our hotel with bulky, heavy bags was a trial that I don't wish to relive, so suffice it to say we're safe and home, or as "home" as we can be right now given that we have no place to live yet in Pittsfield!

After a lovely weekend with first Jesse and her fiance, Mike, and then Michal and her fiance, Jay, James and I drove to my mom's place in Geneseo, NY, to regroup, do laundry, pick up the dog, etc. James leaves tomorrow for Pittsfield while I go up to my family's cottage (on the northeast shore of Lake Ontario, near Watertown, NY) with my mom, my dog, and a number of sisters, nieces, and nephews. I'll be staying with my mom until we get a house in Pittsfield, traveling to be with James on weekends whenever we can arrange it. Since my mom is having heart surgery in September (to replace one valve and repair another) and was also just diagnosed with Charcot's Foot disease--a common complication of neuropathy which will require her to be in a cast for months and a special Frankenstein boot/brace for the rest of her life--it's actually good timing for me to be with her here for a while to help out. But I'm also eager to start my life in Pittsfield with James, so please pray that our house in Tucson sells soon so we can buy one in Pittsfield and the dog and I can join James!

Given my mom's health issues, it became clear to us all last year that she was going to have to move out of this big old house in the country and move to a more manageable place in Rochester, near her church and most of her friends as well as my sister and her family [where I am right now, typing this]. We'd hoped to get the house on the market this past spring, but a number of things got in the way of that, so now we're shooting for next spring. It's really hard to let this place go--we've been here for 37 of my 45 years, and I've been in love with the land since the first time I saw it covered in wild raspberry bushes and burdock. I wish I could upload the sound of the frogs at night and the smell of grasses, trees, Queen Anne's lace, and all the other wildflowers whose names I'll have to relearn after 10 years away in the desert. Hopefully we'll find a place in Pittsfield with enough wild space to smell and sound like this...