It’s been a long, hot summer. As September nears in Texas that means that the onset of fall is still a few months away, but at least cooler summer-time temperatures seem to be on the way. Again, that means 80’s (F), not exactly sweater weather, but then again, not triple digits either.
I long for the cooler air. It seems in the past nine years since I moved from Wisconsin, I have simply traded one extreme for the other: where Wisconsin had nine months of winter, seemingly, Texas has nine months of summer, apparently.
But this diatribe isn’t really about local climate and the change of seasons. This is about the long wait in doldrums between more temperate climes in life.
Currently my wife and I are waiting out a long, hot summer of uncertainty. As I’ve documented, we sold one house, and were unable to buy a second. Now we are living with my family. It has its good things and bad things about it, but it doesn’t feel like our home because, well, it isn’t. I don’t know where we will land eventually, but unless things change radically, I doubt we will live here long term. My wife wants her own place, and honestly, so do I. This wasn’t meant to be a permanent solution, and we will be glad of our own space.
Phrases like “we’ll make the most of it” and “it’s only temporary” only underscore the difficult nature of things. I am not complaining or ungrateful. I am blessed beyond measure to have a family that welcomed us in and is enduring a harder time for our sake’s. I am enjoying being nearer my nieces, my sister, and my parents. Just last night I was thinking to myself that it is wonderful to be able to see them, and then not have to make a half hour drive back to somewhere else called home.
We like it here at the Homestead in Waxahachie, Texas. We didn’t expect to, what with the long commute to work, the smaller living arrangements, and the unsettled feeling of not having our own home. But we do. Our dogs have more room to roam. We have the ease of family support, and if we could just figure out the AC trouble in our bedroom, it’s a decent living arrangement.
I am typing with one hand because my littlest niece, Cassia, wants to cuddle in the early morning quiet. She is soon to be four and I remember holding her as a baby. Next she will be a teenager. When else would I be able to take advantage of these interstitial opportunities in life?
Yes, a house of our own would be nice but I am happy here, at the end of summer, while I wait for autumn to arrive, slow though it may be to show up in Texas. Soon enough it’ll be winter and then where will we be? I have no idea. I confess I am still not that eager to find out.
What did Virginia Woolf say, “one only needs a room of their own”? I have that, and I will be content until something else comes along.
In the meantime, the sun is rising, and it will be another hot day in Texas.
a simple man 