Michigan hosts Florida

Our living room stretched the full length of the front of our house. Because the front door came in the center of the length of this room and it was mirrored by pocket doors, this open space was effectively two rooms. The southern division if this room faced a fireplace, which we nearly never used. So, while a couple chairs, including a very comfortable yellow one, were there, the space was never used. The other space was the one Shelly and I spent nearly all our house time in. A light brown couch, love seat and chair all positioned to face the TV. The floor of this space had a diaper bag, a plastic box of wipes, a bouncy chair and an Exersaucer. The air was full of the sweet vanilla smell given off by a scented candle.

Shelly and I were on the couch. The TV was on, but half our time was spent looking out the window. It had snowed, so our faces were lit by the sunlight reflecting off of it. We were waiting for company. My long time friend Larry was bringing his girlfriend Dixie. A girlfriend, I should mention, I advised him not to move to Florida for. He didn't listen. He was right, I was wrong, enough said.

Anyway, we had not met Dixie yet and it had been a while since we had seen Larry. Additionally, our twins were only nine months old, so there were plenty of introductions to go around.

The little car pulled in and we hopped off the couch. I opened the first door, which opened into a little space with umbrellas and our snow shovel, and waited behind the red outer door. Shelly stood with on of the babies in the living room.

I don't remember exactly how the introductions were done, but it went something like this, "Hey, Larry. You much be Dixie. Dixie, this is my wife Shelly. Larry, let's go.". So, the men left to go look at something or play a game, while the two women, who now only knew each other's name were left in the living room.

Larry and I walked through the dining room, while I showed him the giant cabinets in there. We looked out the window to the abandoned house next door. We went though the mud room and onto the snowy back porch, where I could show him the various things you could see from up here. This was the place where you really recognized this house was on a hill. We caught up fairly quickly, talked about our mutual friends and jobs and the weather.

When we come back inside, I can here my wife calling me. She is sitting on the couch, but Dixie is looking outside. They want to know if it is Ok if Dixie shovels the snow. What? You know, is it a problem if she shovels the snow. I suddenly realized we were not seeing the same thing when we looked out the window. I saw work which needed to be done. She saw an opportunity to do something exotic, something she had never done before.

I have to say, when I handed her the shovel, I felt a little like Tom Sawyer handing her the brush to whitewash a fence.

The three of us watched her and laughed from in the warm living room.