Making Adjustments

For two weeks, we've been getting slow, soaking rain. Just what we've been needing here in Central Texas. For the first time since Labor Day, I felt like I could risk bringing some of the family treasures back from the storage unit in Austin. I was happy to reach the point where I could feel good about bringing things back home because I was tired of looking at the bare hooks on the wall and heading to my office to look up a family record before realizing that it was not in residence.

So early last Saturday Mojo, Coco and I headed to Austin to rendezvous with David and load up Big Red to bring things back where they belong. This week the house has been looking much more normal with the familiar faces beaming down on me from their accustomed places on the walls.

Tilman and Matilda Wilcoxen have resumed their positions in the foyer to greet arrivals.

Baby Lucy Mason, "Aunt Duff", and Elmo Hodge have returned to their spots in the stairwell and on the opposite wall the fragile wedding certificate of my Wilcoxen grandparents and the 1920 photo of Cora Mobley Hodge and her mother Mary Caroline Mobley are back in place. That stairwell has looked mighty bare for the past 3 months.

I hauled back a half-dozen small grocery bags of baby books, Bibles, school records, and assorted small heirlooms that are normally stored in the camel backed trunk in my office. As I started to unload the bags, it occurred to me that it would be smart to line the lower compartment of the trunk with larger bags and repack everything inside. If I ever again have to evacuate, all I will need to do is open the trunk and lift out the bags.

In the smaller upper tray, I unloaded the small pieces and then put a folded bag on top of the tray. All I will need to do is scoop the contents of the tray into the bag and go. Finally, I clipped a list onto the bag to remind me of various items that are located around the house (like the portraits lining the stairwells) that need to be rescued and that might be overlooked in a moment of panic.

It makes me feel good to know everything is back home where it belongs and that I've taken a couple of preventive steps against the possibility of future evacuation.

LSW