Although we have been moving our belongings from our old house to our new one over the past several days, today is the day when we make the final transfer and begin living out of our new home. Before picking up the U-Haul truck that will carry the last load, I swung by the new place with a car full of more fragile items including all of my camera gear. Right on cue as I was unpacking my telephoto lens, the cardinal pictured above perched on a branch just outside one of the picture windows and I naturally proceeded to take a picture through the window. I could not help but feel like this vibrant little bird was welcoming us to the neighborhood and was very pleased to make his acquaintance.

I spent most of the morning and early afternoon loading our rental truck before both Maya and Kyle arrived to lend a hand with an extremely heavy granite tabletop. Working collaboratively we came up with a clever approach to moving it without putting ourselves at risk of injury. That same focus on safety was absent while I rushed to pack the last items into the truck. I took a step back only to discover that I had run out of truck bed and began falling. Somehow, I managed to pivot and get one foot on the ramp and then another even as I was falling off of that. Luckily, Maya was standing at the base of the ramp holding a 4’x8′ piece of 2-inch thick foam core insulation panel. I crashed into her and grabbed the foam core which I used to cushion my contact with the driveway. It shattered into a half dozen pieces and I walked away unscathed. The kids suffered more trauma than I fearing I had been very badly injured which would have been the case if Maya was not standing in exactly the right spot with exactly the right thing in her hand.