(Originally posted on the website Continuum…)

WITH A SUDDENNESS from which my head is still spinning, I found a house to rent and moved in less than a week!

The house is spacious. It is bright. The carpeting is new. The windows are new. It is in a great area. My commute for work is only a handful of miles longer. No one lives in the other half of the house yet and there is no house next to us (drumming without worry of disturbing anyone!). There are a lot of positive things about living here.

The sudden move was made possible to a great extent by my ever-loyal friend, Greg Hartline. (Doesn’t that sound like something you would hear on public television or radio? “This move is made possible by the Gregory Hartline Foundation. The Hartline Foundation… a source of loyal friendship since 1997. On the web at www……”) Originally I was planning on moving on the following weekend. But Greg was there with the resources. We reserved a U-haul truck and I signed the lease on Friday. On Saturday I stood in the middle of piles of boxes in my new living room. Thank-you, Greg, for all the help!

The very first items moved into the new place were my drums. It’s all about priorities people! When all was unloaded and everyone who helped us had left, I set the kit up and took a picture. Then I played until 11:30 PM. There are no curtains on the windows and I did not want to draw attention to myself. So I played by candlelight. That was a cool experience.

My son, T, moved with me. He has his priorities straight too. First he set up his bedroom and hooked up his X-Box. The first chance he got he was lounging in a chair with the controller in his hand. When he got his X-Box a few days after Christmas, T stayed up all night playing with some friends. HERE is a photo of him the next morning. It’s all about priorities!

Unpacking boxes has been a treat. As I stayed at my parents’ home for about 15 months, most of my belongings were in storage. Going through boxes, I have “discovered” many things. I forgot about some of the cool coffee mugs I have, and some of the books, and the games! Of course, the flip side of that is true. I have not found some things that I really need!

The guy that rents the U-hauls was right. When you move, all you do is through away a lot of things and buy a lot of things. When I moved out of my last apartment in September 2002, I threw away mountains of stuff. Upon moving in to the new place, I purchased a mountain of things at Wal-Mart. It’s all about priorities again. T could not very well live without the dvd attachment for his X-Box! The new coffee maker was a priority because we were just tired of looking at the old one. Something new to look at is a basic and essential human right! Right? Light bulbs, and door mats, and a garbage can come in pretty handy too.

So that’s some of the latest news from Snyder World. We are not nearly settled into the new place yet. There is not one curtain on any window. The living room is a labyrinth of boxes. We don’t have a full size refrigerator yet. But we are happy. We have an X-Box and a drum set. What else matters?