Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Time Flies

Hello again. I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. I planned to fill this blog with dozens of posts each year, chronicling my girls' lives and my life as we raced forward into the future. But, life is what happens while we're busy making plans. And so, I've been busy doing other things while this blog sat here gathering dust.

But now I've dusted it off. And I am back. This time I hope to stay. And I hope you'll become a frequent visitor. Maybe even a good friend.

Phoebe is now 14 years old. And Ellie is 11. Oh, the adventures we have had. But we can get into some of those things later on.

Here I sit in my hometown, less than 10 minutes from where I grew-up. I always thought I'd make it farther from home. But there's still time, right? I'm only 41. But I don't feel like I'm only 41. Sometimes I feel about 80.

Am I the only one who looks at my hometown and sees a "shit town"? Probably not. And I'm sure there are plenty of other towns out there that are going down the tubes too. Especially in the Northeast. But my hometown. Holy crap! Closed stores. Boarded-up houses. It is not the sweet, small city I grew-up in. Seriously. The entire area is dying.

In fact, when I was married we lived about 5 minutes from a church where Steven King's daughter was the pastor. Of course, we didn't find this out until after she'd moved on. (Just my luck...)We lived in New Hartford and King's daughter's church was in neighboring Utica.

King fans all know that one of King's least favorite questions is: "Where do your ideas come from?" He always ignored the question or tried to come-up with an answer to suit the interviewer. (He has no idea where most of his ideas come from - usually two seemingly disjointed ideas that become one.) But after seeing Utica, when asked that question, King answered: "From Utica."

If you've ever been to Utica you'd think that was hilarious... and absolutely spot on.

My city is almost as bad. Just less crime. But I suspect that's going to change soon.

If it weren't for my family being around here, and my girls being settled and comfortable, I'd move. But to where? North Carolina? Sounds good. Or maybe South Carolina?

Somewhere near the ocean.

Somewhere nice and relaxing. Somewhere other than here.

Someday.

I guess I still believe the grass is always greener. But the grass here is all dying or dead. So any grass at all would be nice.

Next post, I think I'll tell you a little about my personal life. Don't let me forget.