The Switch

I left Minneapolis around 10:30 Friday morning; just after Evan finished baking cookies for some of his little friends back in Milladore and I finished vacuuming. His friend Getty was due to arrive by noon and Kit was scheduled to show up in the evening. The apartment could almost use a turnstyle at the front door. Alyssa had a conference to attend this weekend, which means the crowd wasn't likely to bother her much.

Although I always look forward to getting home again, it's still hard to leave even though Evan doesn't need much caregiving. He's looking pretty good and in positive spirits. The only thing that gives any indication of something going on is the constant high-noon-in-the-Sahara temperature he likes to maintain in the apartment. Even that isn't such a big deal. The rest of us can wear short sleeves.

My drive home was uneventful except for a rather disturbing personalized plate on a vehicle ahead of me. Minnesota plates reading WILD4PUK. It took me a minute to realize this license plate probably belongs to a hockey fan. My first reading lead me to believe it was probably the vehicle of a bulimic. Naturally, that lead me to think of other equally unappetizing plates: IHURL4U; PUKE4FUN, VOMIT etc., etc. Lucky for me that vehicle turned off in St Paul, leaving my mind to wander to more pleasant places. More pleasant always seems to arrive when crossing the state line. It takes just 30 minutes to travel from Alyssa's apartment to the state of Wisconsin; yet the next 3 hours always seem like the short part of the ride. I did manage 3 stops in that 3 hours. Coffee; quilt shop (found the flannel I needed) and another quilt shop just for kicks. Throw in a couple of book stores on the way and I'd never make it home.

Today was spent, in large part, preparing for the switch. Paul will go up on Monday, so as I unpack, I think of what he'll need; as I shop for our empty larder here, I think of what we need there; as I cook here, I think of what I'll send along up there as we all prepare for another week.