Barry has begun a new adventure. We moved he and some of his things this morning to Lebanon, TN. He will sit in on a college course at Cumberland University in June. I've talked to the professor and made arrangements.

Now comes the task of cleaning out his apartment. I am mortified and ashamed of the state it is in. You can barely walk in it. Gnats are flying all around. His cat is safely secured outside underneath my truck- he won't come into my apartment for an extended stay. So, I bug bombed the place. Hopefully there won't be any gnats tomorrow when I begin cleaning. Philip and Charlotte are going to help me clean it and get furniture moved out. Tim, the landlord, said that we could use all of the trash cans from the other empty apartments. He said he'd even pull them to the curb if I couldn't. I'm having the cable and telephone turned off there tomorrow. After next week the electricity will be turned off.

For Barry this is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another one. He has a ton of opportunities awaiting him and I am excited for him.

In some ways it is also the beginning of a new adventure for me. I also have a chapter ending and a new one beginning. I think the future is going to be rocky but bright for us all. I think it's time for the Hughey nuts to finally have lives of our own. It's just the right time.

I think of all the Obama speeches about change and I have to say he's absolutely right. There are major changes coming. Some of them will be majorly bad but will have good results. Others will be good at the onset and have disastrous results. The prediction of flu and a pandemic that I heard somewhere (while I was working on my World War One book ironically) seems to be coming true. The financial failure is also moving along at a rapid pace. And this is just the beginning. And as horrible as it sounds this may be the change that has the good results. Who knows?

I really don't want to dwell on such things. I want to revel in the knowledge that I have finally been able to make my amends to my mother and brother. I feel liberated no matter what happens.