Welcome words

"Isn't that nice," said Hank, the guy Bobby D sent over Thursday morning about perhaps finishing the tile job. "That great old symbol of welcome, smiling down over the front door."

I looked again at the pineapples Arnold had cut (this one is just tentatively set in, so don't look too closely at the spacing). And I thought about the difference between the original design and our newly created reality.

All of a sudden I thought back to one morning in our motel room on Duval last January. We were down to meet Ref and discuss his bid for the project, and we'd worked over the plans with the architect and the city for more than a year, so it's safe to say I was familiar with them.

But as I woke that morning, I remembered the last dream that flickered in my about-to-wake head: I was standing in the house's front door, I looked around and saw the plan clearly rendered in 3-D for the first time. I was overwhelmed and woke up beaming.

So many of those little dreams since, and so many more awakenings. How lucky to have those dreams and how much luckier to see them take even better shape (and color) than they hinted on the page.

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Back to Hank: Terrific references and interesting clients -- our project is extremely modest by comparison. He called Bobby and talked for a few minutes, then came back in and said he had a little job to finish up, which meant he could start Tuesday.