Five

Wife and I have been residents of the "Great State of Texas" for five years as of this week. This is a pretty important milestone for us in many ways.

It is the longest we have lived in any dwelling (5 years). The previous record was four years in a small house we used to rent before we bought our first home, which we lived in for about three years before we relocated to Texas.

When we got to Texas, I was given corporate housing for 60 days (one of the many perks I was given when we moved). We did not stay there that long...My wife went back to NC to finalized some documents while I stayed back to begin my new job. She she (and our son) joined me two weeks later. We stayed in the apartment about two more weeks before we were able to move into our house in August of 2001.

Those two weeks without my family were somewhat difficult. Since it was corporate housing, there was no housework (other than dishes and laundry) to do and no lawn to mow so I had a lot of free time to kill. Since the apartment had a pool I took advantage of it as much as possible. Actually the apartment had two pools, one closer to the office and one just below where I lived. The one closer to the office was bigger but had more kids/families. The one close to me was singles hang out and a bit of a meat market. I had to be careful.

The apartment had cable, so I watched some TV and since I had a laptop, I could surf/chat the web. I kept me busy and when that got boring I hit the mall that was close by. I did not have much in the way of possessions with me...I flew down with 2 bags. I mainly had clothes and my laptop. No books or PC junk to play with.

My job at that time was mostly 8-5, no major issues to deal with. My evenings and weekends were free, but I would stop in and chat with my employees who had to work the weekend shifts. They seemed to appreciate it.

My new boss was a nice guy. One weekend we drove to Fort Worth and wandered around the historic district for several hours. It was hot so we stopped into a local watering hole and had a beer and chatted in the A/C cooled establishment. He was the type of guy who liked to see people succeed and was suggesting that I accept a short term international assignment to get more exposure in the company. He had done it and had saved a lot of money (the assignments paid very well) for the future as well as enjoyed the area he worked in...Stockholm, Sweden.

When my wife and son finally arrived during the last week of July, they had stopped by Alabama to pick up a friend my wife had known for years. Since this move was blessing us financially, we offered to fly her back to Alabama whenever she was ready. We had the apartment for another month so she could stay as long as she wanted and it would only cost her some food money. She stayed a few days (she had a job that she needed to get back to) and then she flew back. It was a good visit.

My wife, our dogs, and our son stayed in the apartment for a week or so longer and then our house was ready for us to move in. I will not forget that day...someone had vandalized our A/C unit and we had to move in the house while it was 100 degrees outside. We finally (after a few failed attempts) got someone to come over and fix it but it was going to take a long time to cool down, so we headed back to the apartment to spend the night. The next day the house was nice and cool.

Our lives had changed a great deal that year. We moved 1/2 way across the country to the state my wife was born in but had not seen in almost 30 years. We were buying a home in the 'burbs instead of living in the country like we had in NC. Our 13 (soon to be 14) year old son had given up all the friends he had to make a new life in Texas. We had to make all new friends, get acclimated to new jobs and schools, find new doctors, dentists, mechanics, and a church. It was a huge undertaking that we attacked with gusto. My wife, who initially did not want to move, did and excellent job in transitioning to life in north central Texas.

Little we know that our lives would change even more in the upcoming months...much of which I will blog about later. 2001-2002 were very eventful years for me and my family.