After our evening walk and dinner, I spent a little bit of time sitting out on the back patio watching the fireflies flicker about and listening to the waterfall on the koi pond. It was a little slice of heaven.

I grew up in Greensboro, NC. Our ranch home was conveniently placed across the street from a private community pool that we were members of for over twenty years. We grew up around that pool; taking swim lessons there, joining the swim team, playing on the playground, more time spent on the swim team, working at the snack bar, working as lifeguards- you get the idea. When the power was out, we had a key so we could use the showers over there and hang out in the game room until the other half of the street got power back. The few times we got blessed with snow, we'd go sledding on the hills surrounding the pool area. I learned to ride a bike in the parking lot and we'd catch snakes and fireflies in the field. We lived for Summer, that much was sure; splashing water, twinkling stars, fireflies and all.

After my sisters and I graduated from college and started our own adults lives, my parents sold the house and moved to Florida to care for our grandparents. I haven't been home for many years, and not since my folks moved away. I don't really think of Greensboro as home anymore.

They say that home is where the heart is. I now think of our current abode as home, Maryland as home, my comfy chair and the cozy bed as home. But really life and family has taught me that home is where we make it. We always talk about our mustering point when on family vacations. (Of course being the dorks we are, we call it the mustard point.) We had a favorite lounge on the cruise to Bermuda where we'd meet. At Gulf Wars, home base is the Royal Cabin, at Pennsic it is the Vair and Ermine camp.

Over a decade ago, when I was still coming up from Blacksburg to visit with Alan, I made the trek one Friday afternoon. I don't remember all of the particulars, but I seem to have had a rough week, and a rough drive by myself up there, and was just really looking forward to arriving to a place I'd come to call home eventually. As I pulled into the driveway on Eldrid Dr. that time, I heaved a sigh of relief, and a host of fireflies landed on my windshield all lit up as if in greeting. It was a wonderful welcome, one I remember vividly. Since then, despite my sharing an apartment with Mel, and our living in that house and now this, and through all of our travels, home is where Alan is. The fireflies showed me.

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart! I love you!

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Unfortunately I only got Alan a dinged fender:

Courtesy of the Death-wish Doe that Kirsten and I "met" on Saturday night.

Car continues to run fine, and was dropped off at an express claim and repair service this morning for evaluation and repairs. Kirsten and I are fine, and though we've been wondering if someone is trying to tell us a Crown Vic isn't the right car for us, one of Alan's co-workers pointed out that we may have damaged cars, but no personal injury claims were necessary. I confess I was quite proud of being able to plow through a deer at 60 MPH and still run just fine and get us safely home does make me very grateful to Serenity.