After spending the winter in Mexico before the COVID pandemic hit everywhere, the time came to head back home…home to the scenic beauty of our state and encountering the welcoming of our fellow citizens…but then the reality of COVID took hold.
Just called from our daughter’s home in VA (Shenandoah Valley). Rick and I quickly exchange our people/political intelligence gathering. Then came the idea time to challenge Vivian to get on the phone, for her harder than walking a tight wire over the Grand Canyon. BUT, is I write I can hear her voice is smiling as she finally speaks with you, Doreen. She NEEDS to do that! The phone is prepaid! Rick and I have no hesitation calling anyone at any time on any subject.
The trip has gone wonderfully, 1800 miles in 36 of driving hours. I am building trust with Norman the Nissan who I think is getting used to my averaging 50 mph setting by the cruise control on 65. Norman the Nissan yet misses his former family but I am sure he will come to love the less than one mile a day trips my Pennsylvania village seeped in history. It is great via a long trip like this to see/feel a large bit of the nation. Thousands of acres plowed and readied for planting yet sitting idle until farmers can judge if what they plant may not be sold, miles and miles of desert green tumbleweed, a 1000 acres plus of live white sand dunes being ever pushed by the wind eastward, a green, green range of mountains defined as an Indian reservation (Mescalero) that seems sustained by virus closed casinos, miles and miles of wheat and soybeans, rows of giant windmills with ever turning blades, oil drilling rigs/pump/pipes/tanks, each morning soon to wake people trying to reach work by 8, endless 18 wheeler trucks like ants rushing the highways for many hours every day to deliver cargo, trains with 150 cars racing down the rack at 70 mph being pulled by 3-5 diesel engines each of 3000-5000 horsepower, the beauty of areas of rock and water to accent the green and brown earth….
Daily searching for talk radio to make the hours disappear each day in each state offers a never realized before revelation on the inclination of each region as reflected in the array of radio stations that seem to uniquely fit each. Some areas are obviously fully satisfied with current pop music; Spanish language programs; country music, conservative views, liberal views, lots of sports trivia, marvellous cures for all bodily ailments, … I am now inclined to think of creating a USA map with 50-80 circles, each labelled with the radio menu they have obviously voted for as sponsors for all else found no one would turn to their station if it was off the local menu. Perhaps the Internet has such a map. Surely, those selling products on the radio know precisely which geo area is receptive and which are not.
Vivian just got off the phone. She never got to speak to Doreen but was advised to call in an hour when she was back home. In the meantime the gratifying success of farmer Rick’s yard in his lakeside paradise seemed to be the news. Oh, the phone is ringing – Doreen is calling Vivian, what love they have for each other.
I assume Tim and Carol are catching up with their children in UT. May they find all to be well.
It is good a few of you are at Jean’s house. I think at times it must be pretty quiet there, long spells of silence. I personally do well with that! I like to mentally move, from gear one to four and then on to overdrive as I relish exploring some exciting grand idea of trivia like the idea observation above of the changing radio flavor as you roam the US from charming deserts to beautiful green mountains, to endless suburbs, to stress-laden megacities, to little towns whose future has shut down while the human try to hang on. Once on a mental journey, I cherish my musing and end up not being a fan of chit chat and trivia that end your immediate downshift of the gears from overdrive to park.
Vivian and I have enjoyed our Sunday times there with Joan.
Life is truly blessed for each of us. Sadly while this is such a wonderful nation, it is at this season currently beset with tons of misinformation/word spin and much political fueled contention and senseless violence condoned/encouraged by some political leaders who have the public’s police “stand down” as public and private buildings are trash, life-long innocent small family businesses destroyed, autos burned, and cherished monuments to our history being pulled down or defaced by misguided youth and paid criminals claiming to be peaceful protestors.
Monday will be for a re-sorting of the lbs of paper I pack, with my three lbs of clothes, to see what is priority time-wise now workable best while here in VA. Sadly, the virus encouraged us to not visit family and dear friends in Mississippi and Florida. It may even be that we will try to sell our last property in PA, our charming/love-infused 1865 Victorian. Previously thought was that the virus would closeout buyers. However, it seems the low-interest rates combined with a feeling by many/some to escape from the ever-pressing and lethal virus centers of 100’s of people/acre, in buildings of stacked floors will have them look to our paradisical Norman Rockwell town in central PA, a land where half the state is trees, a land where over 500,000 deer each year end up in family freezers. An hour ago a teenage deer walked by my window as it was seeking choice morsels in the acres of lawn here by a large lake.
Thank you for bearing with my musings tonight.
Todd
