guilt

I get confused on this guilt thing.

Should I feel guilty when I don’t do much that dad would call “productive?”

I am an artist (two decent universities say I am) who does little art. The fire that should be in my belly is at best a flicker.

Almost any art has limited appeal. In theory I could make a bucket of new pieces and give them to my kids who have no space and no place to put more and more stuff they do not really need.

It might be better to write a book, it would take less space. Shucks a book of poetry could be even smaller, maybe a quarter of an inch thick, but I am a really lousy poet, and that fire never got lit.

While I am dealing with this guilt thing, I am going to get another cup of chocolate, maybe a cookie and like the gal in South Pacific, but paraphrased, I’m going to wash that guilt right out of my mind.

Maybe.

What an idea, and at these prices!

friends who build fires

When we got home last night, there was a fire going in the stove and the front door was unlocked.

I joked (I thought) to family about how someone had broken into my house, built a fire and left, maybe after a big party where they put everything back where they found them. My joke was not understood by all, but that is the life of a jokester.

My thought was that I had "blamed" the on my friend David who does this kind of thing from time to time. Our house has a LOT of thermal mass and when it is cold for a long period of time, it takes a while to get it warmed up again.

David knows all of this and will often have a fire going, and have had it going when we get home.

That was very good, and I am thankful for the David's of the world.

It was good to sleep in our own bed last night. Shower in our shower, putter in our kitchen and so on.

No matter where it is and how tiny it might be, there is no place like home.

Ahh, this is someone's home.
Bet they are glad to be there.

goin' home

Today is another travel day. It is time to go home.

On this particular expedition we have had a couple of days where we drove 650 miles, but today is the shortest leg of our trip, a mere 45 miles!

Two daughters live that close together. That is good, they see each other more often that way, and it makes a shorter journey for us!

Right now I have bread raising, but when it comes out of the oven we will be ready to hit the road. We will stay just one night with daughter two's family (I promised to come back when it was a bit warmer and spend more time).

Mostly I want to go home, and tomorrow after breakfast we will go.

The sad thing is that we won't see much or any of our daughter. She is an RN who works 12 hour night shifts and she will be sleeping the days we will be there, but we will see her husband and the grandkids.

I remember when we lived in Texas, which was only "home" in a very stretchy way. I assured everyone I was a "temporary Texan" even going so far as to keep Idaho plates on our car (it was legal since we were students).

We would come to the NW two times every year. It took three days of 600 mile a day driving to make the trip, but when we got to Amarillo or Wichita Falls, we were eager to get "home" even though it was not really home.

But this time we are going to the home we have lived in for a long time, down the street from friend david and my sister Joyce.

It really is home.