We’ve been here almost a full month. Here’s what’s up:

- buying a house that is one-year old is like buying a car that has 5,000 miles on it. It’s been around just long enough to still have that new car smell but you can tell if it’s a lemon or not. Our house is pretty sweet. All we have to do it paint and landscape. That’s a lot more work than it sounds like, but still it’s better than repeating the phrase “let’s just take this wall down” several times a day.

- I don’t drive my car much at all. In fact, my car has been parked over at Kelly’s sister’s place for several days now and I didn’t notice it was gone until this AM. That’s pretty nice.

- From a kid’s perspective, the street we live on is great. There are a bunch of kids and they all just walk through the backyards to each others’ houses. There are no play dates, which we like a lot. Also, living across the street from a playground and soccer field is real perk.

- Returning to Monmouth County after more than twelve years means bumping into all sorts of people I haven’t seen in a long time. Last week we were at Riverview Hospital for a minor head emergency. I went to elementary and middle school with guy who ran the CAT scan. Likewise, the other day at the playground across the street, I ran into someone who I used to hang around with when I was a 10 year-old. Crazy.

- Red Bank is a vibrant town with infinite possibilities. It has real neighborhoods, great architecture and a thriving business community. I sat through a council meeting a couple of weeks ago and the issues the town faces are not unique nor are they unsolvable. It appears that behind the caricatured facade of partisan politics that dominates the local political discourse, there is a real willingness on the part of its citizens for Red Bank to realize its potential.

- Some of the things that I would change about Red Bank if I could wave a magic wand: more practical shopping (we could find as many $900-a-pair shoes as we could ever want on Broad Street but can not for the life of us find a bath mat for sale in the 07701 area). Also, I think that cutting down on the amount of automobile traffic that dominates the downtown area would be a great initiative. Living in Middletown from January through July made it clear to me that Route 35 is a cancer that literally destroys everything it touches. I see that is also the case in Red Bank.

- We’re amazingly close to the ocean. I ride my bike out to Sandy Hook at least three times a week. There are some beautiful places to ride around here. I’ve spent very little time at the northern Monmouth County beaches and the stretch of sand from Sandy Hook down south through Long Branch is unfamiliar territory to me so I’m looking forward to doing some exploring.

- Seeing friends and family all the time is great. We have visitors at our house more often than not.

I’m sure I could think of more points to update on if I weren’t trying to keep Jay from killing himself or Jack at the moment.

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