Dan's Here

Dan moved in on Sunday.

I called him around 10 AM to say "What are your plans anyway?" He replied with, "I was just about to call you! We have a truck for the day..."

The rest is history. It was the quickest move I've ever seen. They were done in two loads with a normal pickup truck. That's extravagant in some parts of the world, but in the US it's borderline nomadic (Does that say something about Americans? I know that we have a lot of stuff).

So far, it looks like it will work out well. Dan wakes up at 5 AM most days and Shane hasn't seemed to notice. He works between 40-80 hours a week and is pretty erratic with when he comes home (or not). He came home from work at 3 PM today and 12:45 AM Monday (it was an on-call day). Shane sleeps like a rock and Dan seems to prefer to not shower in the morning, so there's no conflict there so far. I think it's going to work out well.

Plus, I like having another adult around. I've known Dan since before he was a year old. One of the things about parenthood is I felt disconnected from all my old friends. Carrie and I were the first to move away and pop out our spawn. We started on Shane O'Clock which is way out of synch with the time tables of a bunch of young working adults. I have one friend that's never forgiven me for getting married and having a kid! Dan's presence is a connection to the old group and it makes the family group here a little larger.

Secondly, I loved being a part of a large family. It made life more interesting. Until Shane can say a sentence my family feels a little small at times. Carrie was gone until 8 PM today and Brogan was acting a little under the weather so I didn't want to drag him out to visit my parents with Shane. Dan came home and I got my adult conversation out of my system before he retreated to his "man cave in progress." I'm more of a pack animal than I realize some times.

Anyway, we're all playing this by ear. I hope for it to be a win-win situation. Dan gets a much cheaper and nicer place than he normally could have in this area. We get a little help with the mortgage and I have an old friend who 'visits' on a regular basis.