[Elspode]

Okay. I'm happy. Verging on deliriously so. Even so, I have a slight mixed feeling. One of the things that is making me happy is also giving me pause today.

The main thrust of my day today has been loading out my eldest child's entire apartment (as those of you who have known me for awhile will recall, Stephen, my blood son, has lived in the studio barn apartment behind our house since we moved to the new place. He was the main reason we actually bought the house we did - because it had a place for him to live near us). Why did we do this? Because he has moved 60 miles South of KC to live with his fiancee, Julie.

Today, I dealt with my ex wife, my ex brother in law, my girlfriend, my son, his fiancee, my stepson's girlfriend, my son's friend Richard (a Tourette's sufferer), my wife's girlfriend, and my wife for the several hours it took us to load up the trailer and pickup my ex and her bro brought to the table. How was it? Almost painless...thanks for asking. So...I'm happy about how it worked out so far, but I have reservations about my kid being so far away from now on.

Everyone worked together with patience, love and mutual support. It was the least likely outcome imaginable given all the factors involved. The weather was perfect, the work flow was totally acceptable...even the dogs, who constantly got out of the house, stayed close by all day, not running off or being underfoot.

As soon as the moving caravan pulled out, my girlfriend decided that the beautiful redbud tree in our front yard needed a haircut, and so climbed right up in it and proceeded to strip all the dead branches out, throwing them to the ground so as Selene, K and myself picked them up and stacked them off to the side. Pretty impressive for 5' 2", 120# 48 year old, I thought. When that was done, L and I planted a rose bush that was gifted to our household.

The afternoon was still young, so L and I ran to the store and grabbed me a 12 pack of PBR, and then we came here to her place and planted four azalea bushes and a couple of bulbs in her front yard. Then, she dolled herself up, drove to my place and picked up my wife, and headed down to the new Sprint Center to see Barry Manilow with Selene. When they return, I'll stay over with L tonight.

L and I will awake early and drive to my partner Lane's house, where we will load up our PA and gear, and head out to do two 45 minute sets for a local neighborhood organization's annual Chalk Walk (Selene isn't attending, but I am rather blessed in that *both* of my women get incredibly turned on by watching me play and sing - no accounting for taste, I guess), including me running sound for two other acts, and having to haul all the gear back to Lane's (our practice site) afterwards. Then its home for our weekly extended family dinner with Selene and myself, K, her girlfriend, L, my girlfriend, Colin, my stepson and his girlfriend (who are in process of moving into Stephen's vacant barn apartment as I type, leaving their rooms empty for K to move into - she's starting chiropractic college in the Fall, BTW), and my eldest stepson Clifton.

Sorry to ramble on so much in a thread that is filled with simple statements of joy. I have a complex life, and a certain amount of verbosity when I talk about it. Summary? Life is beautiful right now.