When I was a kid, whenever we arrived home from a longish family trip (it may have been a day at Candlewood lake or a two week camping trip in the White Mountains), my dad would say “home again, home again, jiggedy jig” as we rattled down the driveway in the station wagon. It was comforting then and I still think it nearly every time I come home from a trip.

I’m relieved to be home. It was a good trip, but long. It isn’t that I don’t like the places we visit, it’s just that I like this particular place so much. On the way home from the airport, I feel a frisson of happiness every time I reach a certain point on route 89.

So here we are. Back in our routine: a dog to walk, friends to greet at the post office, a stack of mail to open. It doesn’t seem like much, but it is everything.

We have been in Dallas most of this week at the International Lighting Market. Many of our clients come here to shop at this time of year and we like to be where they are. The mood at market has been good this year. I’d thought it might be down because some folks have complained that sales are soft in their retail markets, but it seems they are buying new stock anyway.

I miss Vermont, of course, but the unseasonably warm weather here has been a nice break. This morning it started to rain and the reaction here is happy relief that this might be the end of a lengthy drought.