so long, farewell, auf weidersehen, goodbye

Here we are, back home after 4 days in the city. Well, 3½ since we didn't get into Houston til about 4 PM.

Monday night we had dinner with our son, Aaron, and daughter-in-law, Leesa, before their going away gathering on the back deck of a neighborhood bar.

My son and his wife have decided to move to Oregon. They are young yet, in their 30s, and they are going for a change. They are attracted by the community, however job unfriendly it is, and the weather, after this exceptionally hot and dry year, looks good to them. They have visited Portland before and really liked it. The whole urban thing, being able to walk to what you need, not needing a car because there other good alternatives; fresh food markets, a green mindset, recycling, politically like-minded to themselves. And she lived in Olympia for a time previously.

Actually Olympia was their first destination but for whatever reasons they changed their minds and decided on Portland. I like Portland. I know some other glass artists who live there and I 'know' other bloggers in the area as well and my niece and her husband live there. My brother and his wife live in the Seattle area. So that is Aaron's and Leesa's destination. They will stay with his cousin until they settle in.

They have no real plans besides getting out of Houston. There are no jobs waiting for them, no house or apartment. They have rid themselves of most of their possessions, keeping only what will fit in a 12' box truck and have thrown their fates to the wind.

Leesa is an artist and freelance illustrator and now that she is getting fairly steady work she wants to give Aaron the same chance he gave her. His G.I. Bill is going to run out and he wants to take advantage of the education funding, going to college or maybe taking a printmaking class or some other more creative endeavor besides managing a copy shop.

I've known about the move for two months but I haven't been able to write about it. When he called, he said he had some news. I was in a particularly good mood at the time so was expecting to hear something good. I was not expecting him to tell me he was moving 2,500 miles away.

After the stunned silence wore off, I cried.

I'll never see you again.

Yes you will, besides I hardly see you now, he says, since you moved.

I only moved 55 miles away. One hour away.

Well, I've gotten used to the idea now. I still don't like it, but I'm resigned to it.  Anyway, I understand and I hope they have fun on their big adventure. If we were young and childless, we might do something like it ourselves. Well, I guess we did do something like it. Old with children grown, we moved out here.

But still, big bear hugs from my boy are going to be few and far between now.