December 21, 2025, Plano- There was lighter traffic than usual in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Sunday could be a heavy shopping day, a few days before Christmas. Perhaps the presidential proclamation that extends the holiday from one mid-week day to a five day affair may have something to do with this, but I have my doubts,

In any case, the drive from Clarendon, on the south end of the Texas Panhandle, to this bustling corporate mecca, on the east side of the Metroplex. was as smooth as silk. I was fortified by a simple, but hearty breakfast at Clarendon Outpost, later supplemented by a Smores Latte at Valley Pecans, my favourite stop along the way, in Chillicothe. The Northwest Passage has other delights, which I’m sure will draw me in, on the next and final phase of this transition from Desert Southwest to Great Plains.

The house felt homey, despite the organization that we will tackle in stages. Today, after Sportage was unloaded, boxes were powered upstairs to my new rooms and leaves were raked and (largely) bagged, we enjoyed Korean food and took up a few remaining tasks, before tomorrow’s big event. I will stay behind, to greet and oversee another contractor, while parents and child begin their first day together.

Thus will begin my new life as a grandparent, as one friend recently quoted his mentor, “coaching from the sidelines”, while leaving the heavy lifting of parenthood to someone I knew as a 6.2 pound newborn, now a 6’1″ powerhouse, who is more than capable of the teamwork that will see a little girl to womanhood.

I will spend this week getting to know a tiny person, a true bundle of joy, before going back to Prescott to tie up affairs as well as any fourteen years of life can be tied up. Then will commence my life in a new Home Base.