Saying good-byes

One of the bitter-sweet experiences of moving cross-country are all those farewells. Suddenly our social calendar has become quite active as friends call and want to have us over one more time. It's nice to be appreciated - I even said in jest, "We really should leave more often."

On the other hand, all those good-byes seem strange - they are real but unreal. After all, the people are the same people we've known, in some cases, for 35 years. It seems strange they won't be around any longer, or rather, we won't be. Can it really be? We console ourselves and others with the promise that we will be back next April when Dwight will have to come for a business trip. But still - we will miss each other. I suspect the "missing part" will be more on our end, since we'll have to start all over making friends.

And it's not just friends. I admit, despite the winters, that I'm going to miss Iowa. Today we drove to a friend's house in the country. The sun was shining, the fields were bright green due to all the rain we've been having, and the landscape was perfectly flat, with the roads laid out neatly. The tiger lilies were blooming alongside the ditches. It was beautiful. It will be different in WNC (Western North Carolina).

It probably won't sink in until the truck pulls away from the house, and we are hitting the road.