Mom's Movin' and We're "helping"

Well, after 29 years, Mom is pulling up stakes and moving...about 3 miles. While this may seem like an easy move, keep in mind that all of the prep work was done (nearly) on her own. Us kids helped with a bit of sorting, but it's hard to help pack up someone else's...treasure. Luckily, Mom aka Mary Ellen (Hairy Melon to her brothers) is what you might call a neat freak. Her house is always impeccably clean and organized, to the point of anality (not sure if that's a word, but you get the picture). I say this because if she wasn't so organized, the task would have been even more daunting. Mom really showed us her strength through the whole process. Adding to the difficulty is the fact the my Dad died nearly three years ago. She was left to pack all of the memories (pictures, clothes, knick-knacks, etc.) and grieve a bit more without his loving shoulder to cry on or listen the way only he could. In a way, I think a house is just a structure, but a home is everything else that you add to it over the years...and I don't mean the furniture. I mean all of the memories, with the good ones far outnumbering the not so good. (insert misty eyes here)

Julie and I left around 1:30PM on Thursday, June 19th and drove to the Southwestern Chicago Suburb of Oswego. We arrived at about 11:30PM. Now I realize that it doesn't take 10 hours to drive from MPLS to Oswego. Julie and I decided to make a pit stop in Verona, WI (fireman's park-part of the IMOO bike course) and join our friend Eric P. for a single loop of about 40 miles. Unfortunately, Eric's bride of 3 years (Michelle) was not able to join us. It was their anniversary, but Eric kindly made time for us.

Let me just say that bike course is awesome...at least the one loop was. I'm not a very strong biker and easily get dusted by Julie each and every time, but man this was cool. The main reason for us doing the bike loop was for me to get a glimpse of what the Ironman course was like. In years past, just watching Julie bike part of the course was intimidating as hell. Hills are generally not my friend, but to climb cowbell hill and see those people cheering (in my mind of course) was cool. It wasn't as bad as I had pictured in my head all of these years. I might even pony up for an IMOO registration this fall...nothing in stone yet!! Well, Eric had to cut the loop short so he and Michelle could have a nice anniversary evening together. Great seeing you Eric!! Happy Anniversary and Happy Birthday Michelle!!

The only strange thing to happen on our ride was as we were coming back into Verona. A young punk in a little black P.O.S. car blared an air-horn right as he passed us. I swear, if I could have followed him to his house I would have...done nothing because I usually avoid confrontation at any cost. Internally, I was fuming:P Anyway, we packed up and continued down to Oswego and crashed about 10 minutes after arriving.

On Friday, our great fortune was that all of the heavy stuff was moved by...what else, movers. We helped Mom with the "last few items"(two car loads) and then it was official, Westleigh Ct. was history. Now came some unpacking of boxes, some yard work and even breaking Mom's computer. We helped her select a new 46" LCD HD TV. All was fine by the time we left, but we had to make sure that the electronic Bridge game and her email were working...it was and still is I think. We really did have a nice time with Mom and love her new (to her) townhouse. Plenty of room in a nice neighborhood and within walking distance of downtown.

On Sunday morning, we packed up some of my treasure that Mom had found and hit the road. Our drive home was uneventful and traffic pretty light.

I am continuously amazed at Mom's strength and grace, not only with the stress of moving, or even the death of Dad, but with the current phase of her life too. She is so open to new and different things...always willing to say "why not" when it might be easier to just stay the course. She'll tell you that she's not that strong but I know she is, heck, everyone who's ever met her knows that. I love you Mom and if you are able to click on the favorites BLOG link that I set up for you, you'll know it too!!