I was a bit circumspect about where I was the past few days.
The answer?
Biloxi, Mississippi. My parents’ hometown.
My mother moved back down there this spring. She waited a while for her brand new house to be built, and finally moved in. Unfortunately, not even two weeks into the new place, her heath issues escalated to the point where she needed to be in assisted living. We looked at getting someone in-home, but the costs were too high.
So we’ve got a house that isn’t completely cared-for, ready to live in. Much of what I spent time doing was things like getting the alarm system installed, and getting the water turned back on.
Still some things to do as far as getting the place ready, but it’s a lot closer.
I do feel like, now, I could stay there the next time I come down to visit. Is it ready for someone to live in? No. Next big thing is to find someone to tend to the lawn and greenery. But I feel better about it.
It’s a gorgeous place. Expansion to a new development. Not terribly far away from civilization, and within earshot of my parents’ high school.
My godmother said that my mom was excited about being able to hear band practice from her patio.
But we’re trying to get things fully taken care-of, then decide how to deal with it.
If I lived closer, it’d probably be easier. I have relatives who can help, but it’s just a matter of getting everything aligned.
The other reason for the visit was smaller in stature, but probably as big in logistics. Certainly, more difficult to set aside until I’m ready to deal with it…
Say hello to my little friend.
My mother had adopted her while she was still working, and had been her companion. While the facility where my mom is now allows pets, it is up to the resident to provide all the care for the pet. My mom isn’t even allowed outside, aside from the residents’ courtyard in the middle of the building.
But I’m home now, so transition days. I’ve got some work to do today and tonight, and probably will take tomorrow off as another rest day. Back full-bore on Monday.
Other thoughts about the Landmass?
- The weather, by and large, isn’t terribly oppressive the closer you are to the beach. Inland it gets uncomfortable. We went to Mary Mahoney’s for lunch the last day I was there. My godmother was my mother’s maid-of-honor at her wedding, and the rehearsal dinner had been at Mary Mahoney’s almost fifty years ago. We went to lunch. It was very, very good.
- I guess I’ve gotten accustomed to the densely-packed locales of the East Coast. Long drives are kind of par-for-the-course down there. But it doesn’t feel as separated as it does up here. I know my wife and I were looking at potential landing spots that wouldn’t be considered far-away down there, but would be a long distance away up here. There was another place that I’d looked at where the train went through. Even if the drive is only 30 minutes, it’d be an unbearable slog. I’m to the point where I don’t really even enjoy going into the District anymore.
- 5G still is iffy some places. I was hoping that I’d have useful Intertubes on my train ride from DC to Hattiesburg. No. The WiFi on the train was only usable about half of the basically day-long trip, and things didn’t get a lot better when I got to Biloxi. The networks in the hotel was nearly unusable most of the time, too. I got a throttle warning from my cell company saying that I was up against my bandwidth limit until….something like 20 August. Oops. I need to go finish my write up on the latest Notes of a Goon.
But I’m home. It’s comfortable. Time to do some more things here and there.