Someone commented that now we're empty-nesters. I was thinking we weren't, because he's still not self-supporting, but we did, this time, move his bed out of the house. That's a signal. I think he got it, both from his expression yesterday when he saw his former room without the bed (he hasn't lived in it for three years, but it's always been there and he would come over and lounge on the bed) and today when he got a wonderful smile on his face and said "This is MY home now!" Yes. When he comes back, it will be different.
It may also look different...I'd like to take the blackboard that we screwed to the wall years ago to give him a place to scrawl (it's a BIG one) off, and repaint the room. I'd like to either make it a guestroom or (and this may happen first) move the drafting table that's shoved in a storage area in the other house over here so I can do the master map for these books without having to use the kitchen table (which we then can't eat on for the duration, and which I have to cover up to prevent anything soiling the map.)
In order to get the boxes we'd brought emptied so we could remove them, I went on and put away the kitchen stuff, but told him he was certainly free to move it around where *he* wanted it (he was carrying more stuff up, while I did that as a rest for myself).
Meanwhile, bed...because the movers will be here in 10 hours and I still only got six hours of sleep last night (and five the night before.)