I’ve bought a bunch of graphics apps recently — one for my laptop, a couple for my phone — in the hopes of producing better images. But I still forget to take pictures, making the graphics apps a little pointless. Alas.
But this week could have had some good photos. I’ve been doing useful things — doctor’s appointment, service on Serenity, visiting friends — but in between those useful things, I’ve had times when I had no place to go, no place to be. It’s sort of a weird feeling. I can’t decide to go home or back to the campground because I am at home and my home is not situated in a campground. I just have to figure out where home should be, in between movements, if that makes any sense.
The easiest option is always to just find a big parking lot. There are seriously a lot of big parking lots in the world. Walmart, grocery stores, shopping malls… sadly, Trader Joe’s never has big enough parking lots, but I can usually find a parking lot somewhere in which to sit. However, parking lots are mostly boring. (I say mostly because the one I sat in on Saturday for hours and hours had a rescue group looking for homes for puppies. I was too stressed about my dogs to appreciate them, but cute puppies everywhere definitely improves a parking lot.)
This week, however, post-my lovely scenic ocean parking lot, I’ve used my GPS to find the nearest parks. It’s been weird because I’m very close to… well, to what was home. On Monday, I was three minutes away from my old house, because I was visiting my storage unit. I hung out in a park that I spent seven years living not five minutes away from and had never visited. The next day, I went to one that was about five miles away. It was lovely. A beautiful county park, next to a big lake, with boardwalks through old Florida cypress forests. And the whole time I lived here, it was right around the corner and I never knew, never looked…
It’s a good lesson, but I have to admit, I’d still much rather be off exploring parks in new places. I’m doing my best to appreciate where I am — and I do, definitely, appreciate my time with friends and family — but I’m also yearning to be off again. I’ve got things to do in Florida, but I’m pretty sure Texas is calling my name. Soon. First, though, a few more weeks in Florida and a few thousand more words in Tassamara.
We’ve had friends visiting us from New Zealand and the wife is an avid reader like I am. We enjoy the same genre’s so I told her about Tassamara and gave her the link to your books on Amazon. She’s going to start reading your work and following you. I love it — now we can talk about the people in Tassamara and follow Grace together! Hope you’re able to get back on the road soon. I can feel your traveling itch from here!
Fun! I hope she likes them!
I forgot to tell you about the Lavender fields of Fredericksburg, TX!!! Absolutely awesome… we hit them at the wrong time — they’d just finished blooming so there wasn’t much to see, but we want to return some time at the right time to check them out.
https://www.google.com/search?q=lavender+fields+texas+fredericksburg&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=592&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwje3IDpwI7QAhWrh1QKHfhEAVEQsAQIJw
It’s amazing what we never go see close to our own homes. It’s true not only for parks, but also lots of other things- museums, tourist attractions, etc. I think a lot of use are less likely to explore close to home because we feel like we can go anytime and we get caught up in our little worlds of chores and work.
Texas is such a great state- vast and actually quite a lot of variety there. The Fort Davis mountains are one of my favorite parts of Texas- but they’re a long across Texas from where you’re at.
I’ve been to Austin and Dallas, spent a night in San Antonio and driven through Houston, so I’ve been to Texas before, including the long, long drive across Western Texas, but I’m looking forward to exploring it more!
Lately I keep coming up against reasons why I want to change jobs. There is no real good reason to leave and many to stay. But I have accumulated baggage interacting with people there and the compulsion to leave is strong. Not going anywhere though.
Maybe you have baggage attached to your old neighborhoods.
Oh, I think we always get baggage eventually. But it was strange how much being “home” felt like it was drawing me back into a world of needing to take care of responsibilities that felt burdensome.