Down the road a piece.....

That used to be a favorite saying of my wife's father..

Where ya going Don?...He'd tell em "Down the Road apiece..." Of course that meant somewhere totally different. We never know where we're going, really, do we?

If you'd have asked me 16 years ago, "Rich...are you buying a house?" I'd most likely would have said, "Yeah, right...I'm not THAT responsible..." then would have laughed it off and went back to the party.

Now, here I am, married and eleven days away from moving into my own freaking home...It's still unbelievable. Hell, sixteen years ago I was a heartbeat away from packing my bags, dropping out of my then life, and moving to Alaska. I'd had enough here. Here being California. I figured it couldn't be any worse, and I had a friend that could get me a job on the pipeline...Then one night, I went with a buddy to a place called "SHOUT!" and when I walked in, I saw this woman with these unbelievably beautiful green eyes...well, lets just say I forgot about Alaska, and four months later I proposed. A year later we were married.

It's been a while...we've had some hard times. We don't have any kids...not for lack of trying, just never happened...Then an 11 year stretch with a disability that I don't want to go into...lets just say it had me doing the house husband bit...a lost license...some lost loved ones...and now here we are. I finally got my license back, I got back into the workforce, and now we are doing something that we should have done 14 years ago....Buy that damn house.

So yeah, me, the wife, and the boys...

are getting ready to make the big move to Goodyear, Arizona. We got a nice little place that's big enough for us...just us. My only heartache, is that I wish that my mother could have lived long enough to see the place...Somehow, I know that she is...but its not the same. Your boy has a place of his own now mom...I know its somewhere farther than California, but you know me, I always have to be the one who breaks the mold...

Where we going?

Home.