<\/p>\n
Francine rolled into the County Administration offices looking like the dog had dragged her to work.\u00a0 \u201cThese three day holiday weekends are going to be the death of me,\u201d she muttered to Harvey, the county\u2019s health officer.\u00a0 Harvey looked up from his list of septic tank inspections for the week and said, \u201cWhat?\u00a0 You don\u2019t like football playoffs all day long, all weekend long?\u201d<\/p>\n
Francine tossed her purse behind the counter and made a bee-line to the coffee urn in the back corner.\u00a0 She was still growling by the time she returned with her quart mug Big Gulp steaming with fresh joe.\u00a0 \u201cOne ballgame is one too many, Harve, but honest to god, there must have been a dozen.\u00a0 Wally had a friend or ten over, beer cans everywhere and crummy leftover pizzas far as the eye could see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wally was her 26 year old son, laid off from the lumber mill in Sedro Wooley three years ago, unemployment exhausted and now a refugee in Francine and her husband Trey\u2019s basement which they\u2019d finished off into living quarters.\u00a0 If you called a room with no windows, a small bed, apartment sized fridge and a makeshift toilet and sink \u2018living\u2019.\u00a0 He had a small TV in there but mostly Wally watched ESPN on the 48 inch drive-in theater screen in Trey and Francine\u2019s living room.\u00a0 Meaning, his real living was upstairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long are kids supposed to stay in the nest, Harve?\u00a0 Riddle me that!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI read the other day that nearly half of children from 18 to 30 were living with their folks.\u00a0 You\u2019re in good company, Frannie.\u00a0 Just takes longer these days for kids to grow up, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was 18, I couldn\u2019t wait to get out of my parents\u2019 house.\u00a0 Got an apartment with a couple of girlfriends in Seattle, found a job and got out.\u00a0 What\u2019s so hard about that?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvey put his appointment list down.\u00a0 \u201cRemember what you paid for the apartment, Fran?\u00a0 My first one was 75 bucks, some sad little second story one bedroom over the TV repair shop down in Ballard.\u00a0 75 bucks a month.\u00a0 What do you suppose that would go for now?\u00a0 I bet you couldn\u2019t find anything cheaper than a thousand.\u00a0 On top of that, figure how much some minimum wage job would pay.\u00a0 Might tell you why kids are living at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francine took a slow hit off her Big Gulp cup.\u00a0 \u201cYou think we should charge Wally rent?\u201d\u00a0 The idea seemed to grow immediately in her imagination.\u00a0 She was looking at Harvey and already nodding her head.\u00a0 Why not? she was saying more to herself than him.\u00a0 Room and board too!\u00a0 Yes, why not?\u00a0 \u201cHarvey,\u201d she finally said out loud, \u201cyou\u2019re a genius.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harvey shrugged.\u00a0 Tomorrow Franny would be muttering about the same thing.\u00a0 The kid couldn\u2019t afford rents in the area, he sure couldn\u2019t afford Francine\u2019s.\u00a0 \u201cOr,\u201d he said, shuffling papers, \u201cyou could move away.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we did.\u00a0 Jim, our son, didn\u2019t want to leave his friends.\u00a0 I hear Phoenix is nice.\u00a0 At least winters\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Francine rolled into the County Administration offices looking like the dog had dragged her to work.\u00a0 \u201cThese three day holiday weekends are going to be the death of me,\u201d she muttered to Harvey, the county\u2019s health officer.\u00a0 Harvey looked up from his list of septic tank inspections for the week and said, \u201cWhat?\u00a0 You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[5367,2995],"class_list":["post-16341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rantings-and-ravings","tag-empty-nest-refilled","tag-kids-in-the-basement"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16342,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16341\/revisions\/16342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skeeterdaddle.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}