THE NEW PLACE is starting to shape up and take on the characteristics of a home finally. The washer and dryer are in, curtains are up, and a few decorations are on the walls. It is slowly but surely becoming "our" place.

My good friend Laura, a displaced Jersey girl living in Virginia, generously gave us the washer and dryer, as well as a sofa bed and love seat, along with several other things. She was even kind enough to drive T and me from New Jersey to Virginia this past Saturday after visiting her family. It is rather humorous to see this girl, with her New Jersey accent and attitude, mingling among the Southerners in Virginia. That dang Yankee! So generous that I bet she'd give up a kidney or two for a friend in need.

T and I rented a small U-haul truck to bring our newly acquired laundry equipment and living room furniture back to New Jersey. It was a beast of a vehicle! The doors did not seal very well when closed. The faster I drove, the louder the sound of the wind coming through the edges of the door. It nearly drove us nuts. Plus, part of the storage area of the truck extended over the top of the cab. We both hit out heads several times getting in and out of the truck. The first indication that the truck was a jalopy was the strong oil fumes that came through the heat ducts when we turned the heat on. The second was the old oatmeal cream cookie T found in the glove compartment. Ewwww. I was so tired and still not over a nasty cold that I pretty much went straight to bed when we got back home at 9:30 on Saturday night. We unloaded the truck on Sunday afternoon after one of T's friends came over.

I hooked up the washer and discovered that the valves on the water lines for the washer hook ups leak. Hooking up the gas line for the dryer required a run to Home Depot for new channel locks since mine are who knows where. It sure was nice to do laundry in my own home again. I didn't do laundry for seven years! Not in my own home at least.

After dropping the truck off on Sunday, we picked up J. He came over and cleared out most of the things that were piled in the living room, putting most of it in the attic. What a tremendous difference that made! I then made a last minute trip to Wal-Mart before they closed and bought curtains for that room and the dining room. When T saw it he said, "Wow! It actually looks like a 'living room' now instead of a storage unit!"

We placed our table in one of the corners of the dining room near the windows. The chairs have a light green color on the cushions. I bought curtains to match. This corner is bright and colorful. It has some culture to it. It is in that corner that we hung Matisse and Picasso prints, along with a black and white photo of Picasso. In addition, on the oversized windowsill we placed two large art books. One is on Matisse and Picasso from the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The other is a book on M. C. Escher. I was happy to see T and his friends flipping through these books.

There is a good atmosphere of creativity in our home. In addition to some of the artwork now on the walls, there is a lot of musical activity going on. T and his friends have been learning to play guitar, making up songs and learning some of their favorite songs from other bands. One of his friends brought an eight track digital recorder over. One day while I was practicing, they tried to sneak into my room to record me. I stopped and said, "Uh… why are you crawling into my room and what are you holding out in front of you?" It was a microphone. We then hung the mic from the ceiling light. I proceeded to play while the boys experimented with the effects on the recorder until they got it sounding pretty good. A few people have stopped by to see the house for the first time lately. As they stare at the long black cord wrapped around the light with a puzzled look, I have to explain that we are currently living in a recording studio. Last night, the boys set up a more permanent arrangement for the recording equipment in T's room. From there we can run mic cables down the hallway to the other bedrooms for recording purposes.

As a father/musician, what more could I ask for? I know where my son is. His friends know that they are welcome in our house. They have even shown their appreciation by making dinner one night. Last night they baked cookies. They helped us move and arrange things in the house. They have let us borrow tools. They have given us rides. I have provided dinners and a decent place to "hang out." I have listened to some of their musical endeavors, pointed out what I thought was very good and offered some suggestions to stretch their creativity. This is all good. This is home as I want it to be.