Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Changes Coming?

At our extended family Christmas gathering this past Saturday the oldest son and I were talking and the subject of changing locales came up.  It seems he has had a bellyful of living in a crowded suburban environment.  It has been coming awhile, I have seen signs of it.  He echoed many of the things I said back before we moved farther out of town for similar reasons many years ago.  The area he is in has become a tightly packed housing fiasco.  Little to no natural landscape remains, nothing but houses one right up next to the other.  A nightmare in my mind.  It was a little more open when they moved there.  That has changed drastically in about 5 years.  He said he is ready to move.

When he says this, he means to an entirely different city.  A small city, similar to the one where he went to college.  I understand completely.  Been there.  He is fortunate that his job will allow a move like that since he works out of his home.  All he needs is an airport so he can get to a larger airport for the traveling he has to do on occasion.  The city he has in mind, he doesn't particularly like.  I have to agree it is not a pretty town and it's always windy since it is on the planes of the Western half of the state.  We had considered moving there a while back.  But he was there at school and the wife's work HQ was there and I could have transferred.  The wife also has some family there that are great folks. But that was just us kicking around fun ideas we were pretty sure would never happen, just talk.  

Now it seems that talk has come back to bite us.  The Son would want us to move there also if they moved and reminded me of those words.  But he is practical and listened to what else I had to say about a move like that.  My parents are at an age that they are requiring more and more help.  While they manage pretty well most of the time, we are close enough to step up if something goes wrong. Their parents lived well beyond 90, and they are still very healthy although frail.  They could well live another 10-15 years.  By then, we will be much older also and after moving them last year, I just don't see a move in my future.  I had to tell him, to do what he thinks he needs to do to be happy, don't wait on us.  I won't like it, especially taking the Grandkids farther away, but do what you have to do, we will understand.  Hopefully it's just talk for him too, maybe he can come up with another not so drastic solution.

Happy Trails

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

Those talks DO happen, I think more regularly that most people think... He's lucky in one thing, y'all are understanding and want what is best for them.

CenTexTim said...

FWIW, I really like the area around Burnet. Affordable housing, small town living, no urban or suburban sprawl. Reasonable driving time to Austin and San Antonio - and Bulverde. Beats the heck out of West Texas.

Randy said...

Old NFO-yes we understand, hopefully that would make it easier, but probably not.

Randy said...

CenTexTim-We like Burnet area too. Not sure it would work for the boy having to drive to Austin to catch a flight, it seems Austin issues are as bad or worse in some cases.