A different world

After less than a week of having Grayson home, I was obliged to pack him up on Friday and send him off again with his dad. On Saturday he boarded a plane in Dallas and flew to New Mexico, where he met G mom for a few days with his cousins. I talked to him this morning and, though he'd left me a somewhat pitiful message at bedtime the night before, it sounds like he's having a terrific time.

Meanwhile I find myself with another week of free time on my hands. I could, of course, be using this time to accomplish any number of needed tasks: mowing the lawn would be a good idea. There are weeds to pull. The toilet needs scrubbing, and there are still a few boxes in the garage that I haven't unpacked. But I'm not. I'm lying on the sofa reading books, when I'm not sleeping or watching reruns of "House." Pitiful.

Today, to redeem myself somewhat I got on my bike and went for a ride. This is something I find really enjoyable that I could not have done with such pleasure in OKC. Norman is such a quiet town, and the side streets are virtually empty during the dinner hour. Even tooling down Berry Road was no problem, though it's more fun to take the neighborhood streets where there are no cars swinging wide to get around you. Riding in Norman reminds me of when I was a kid. The smell of cut grass, kids on bikes, dads out mowing lawns, barbecue smoke. It smells like home. I guess you never get away from that feel of your suburban childhood.

It makes me glad to have moved here... glad that Grayson will grow up in that environment as well... not the semi-urban jungle of mid-town OKC, where there are panhandlers walking just a block from his house and police helicopters cruising low over the neighborhood at night. I would never have let Grayson walk six blocks to school by himself in OKC. Here, I won't think a thing about it, just hustle him out the door. My bike has been parked on the front porch unlocked for two weeks, unmolested, and what's more, the kids' bikes in the yard in the house across the street are practically on the curb, and remain there, day and night. At the old house, before G moved out he got his bike stolen from inside the fence, and all his cds stolen from inside the Trooper. It's a different world.