What is normal?

They say it's back to normal now.

The tree is laying out in the snowbank and will be roasted in the spring cleanup.

The decorations are put away

The needles are mostly out of the carpet

and the cat has puked and shat the last of the tinsel out of her system.

 

 The goodies are almost all gone

(someone shared a good theory with me the other day, eat all the leftovers really quickly, gorge yourself because the sooner they are gone the sooner you can start to lose that weight!)

 

Roast turkey, turkey pie, turkey sandwiches and turkey soup are done with until next Thanksgiving

Tim Horton's Candy Cane Hot Chocolate is no longer stocked

And the outdoor lights still hang but are no longer plugged in.

 

I used to look so forward to this time

Time to go back to normal.

 

But, normal these days

means that the house is just Gerry and I

after two weeks of hustle and bustle and cooking dinner every night (gasp!!)

Mom caught her Greyhound bus back to the coast

and
 

Jeremy flew off into the fog this afternoon in the little rinky dink 2 prop plane today back to his work in Edmonton and home in Red Deer
 

after a couple of false starts, first to bring us back the bottle of iced tea in his pocket that he wasn't allowed to take on the plane,

then the bottles of shampoo and conditioner in his backpack that had to go back through the luggage check in area to get put into his suitcase.

When the plane only holds a couple dozen people, it's easy to find his suitcase back that hadn't yet been loaded.

Finally getting the go ahead to step out on the cold windy grey tarmac and climb the dozen steps into the plane,

us banging on the window for a last wave goodbye but him not noticing

and the door folding him up inside

putting my son's life in the pilot's hands, wanting to tell him to be careful as he has precious cargo on board

Then the two and a half hour drive back home, him nearly arriving in Edmonton before we get back home.

 

Thankfully, normal does mean that Trevor is still around, even though he no longer lives at home either.

Having a girlfriend means that he is not to eager to explore the opportunities that well paying labourous jobs in the cold north have to offer, for now. 

He's only 18, still young, time will tell where he will head in his future.

So, back to normal, like it or not.

ps....what is not normal is that I can't upload pics off my computer to put into this post, anyone else having that problem??