Home?

I'm back in Alpena after 48 hours in Grand Haven.  The rent is paid for next month on the apartment I visit occasionally, and the junk mail has been junked.  Home — in an official sense — remains Madeleine Court, but more and more that title associates itself with Kauffman Boulevard.  Every now and then I realize that in a few weeks, I will be living in my own house for the first time in three decades.  Well, mine and the bank's....

Among the small decisions I should make this week is the hearth pad for the wood stove.  Do I want a ready-made pad that I lay down on the hardwood?  Or a pad built on the subfloor?  If the latter, what material will I use?  Since I won't be moving the stove around, I'll have to look at this pad for the next many years — to be exact, for the rest of my life.  Decisions, decisions. •••