Twenty years later

Wben VH and I got married twenty years ago, we bought a house. We didn't live there too long-- we moved when the oldest was a baby, because VH was sick of his consulting job, which required massive amounts of travel-- but it was a nice little house. It was in the middle of a field, as was the entire neighborhood. So we planted three maples (one in the front yard and two in the back), referred to as the Q-tip trees, because they looked like toothpicks with a tiny ball of leaves on top. We also planted two crepe myrtles in the front yard, and a ton of azaleas, which were only about a foot high when we moved out. I haven't seen the house in a long time, and last night I thought, "We ought to drive down and see what it looks like now."

Silly thought, as the house is six hours from here. But it occurred to me that I could look it up on Google Maps, so I did. The Q-tip trees are now massive. The backyard is all but covered by their canopies, and from the road you can only see the house's garage, because the rest is hidden by trees and shrubs. It's no longer a new house in a field, but a nice older house in an established and well-treed neighborhood.

Meanwhile, the child who was a baby when we moved out will turn sixteen in three days. Time marches on...