Well, we're getting ready to head out for another week. I've already taken Mara down to the truckstop. She'll be back soon with the truck, and we'll be on our way.

I've been thinking about Christmas. Next Monday after we get the $4,500 check to settle out the loan, we'll be giving Mara's mom $4,000. We owe her that much on the Aerostar van we just traded in on our Windstar. Yes, that'll leave us with $500 from a $55,000 loan. I suppose Jim Childers was right in teaching me that one thing; nothing is ever as good as you want it to be. If nothing else has held true in my life, that has.

Yes, we're supposed to get the rest, $10,000, next May. But I don't expect to see it. Nothing in the way things have gone so far gives me any reason to expect it.

Not that I'm complaining. After all this is settled, we'll be in the free and clear, with no outstanding debt. We'll be starting fresh, and will have squared away both Mama and Loretta's debts, as well as the few things we had on us. We may be back to basics, but at least we can start building from here. All we've done for the past four years or so has been to patch things and maintain the status quo. I prefer to think of it like this; we've stripped everything down to the foundation. And while we might like to have the big house on the hill already built, we inherited a fixer-upper. At least from here we can begin to build something new.

Ever upward. Right?