[Today’s run: 3.5 miles]
We went out for dinner on Thursday to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary. Having been to our current top-choice restaurant in Columbus in the last two weeks, we decided to go further afield. So we drove up to Tupelo and ate at the Blue Canoe. I had pot roast on corn bread waffle. That’s an official entrée, not something I dreamed up. It was good. They had live music for a little bit. It was just starting up as we were finishing. It was a man and woman playing fiddle and guitar and singing old-style country. I didn’t recognize the song. It was a nice evening.
We have a beer aficionado in the house, one bottle per day. So we stopped at the fancy beer store in Tupelo before we left town. I used to be able to pick out something she would like, but her taste took a turn a year or so ago and I can no longer predict what she might like. So I mostly stay out of that.
I grew up in a strict no-alcohol environment and that probably was good for me. My own views are more lenient and I think I can make an argument for my position. But I give the generation before mine some credit for their position. A lot of pain and heart ache is avoided to just skip the whole scene from the beginning. At one point, just on the edge of living memory, we had a complete national prohibition. Mississippi removed complete state prohibition in 1966 and just recently started to allow local micro-brewery operations in the state.
We seem to be in a more licentious age now and I expect to see marijuana become legal at some point more or less everywhere. And most people won’t care but some will fall into that hole who wouldn’t have done so if it were still illegal. That doesn’t mean the legalization is right or wrong: people still have to control their own activities. It just means a barrier goes down and a few people will waltz into trouble who might have balked when they feared jail, or even a ticket. And that’s not to speak of the car wrecks and such.
Anyway. On to what I really wanted to talk about.
I’m not sure how we got on this subject, but my wife asked me if I had any special requests about my disposition after my demise. And I remembered I mentioned on here a few months ago that I like that little spot in Pleasant Hill cemetery, shady, and scenic, etc. But I decided not to say that. I really don’t want to have someone dragging me hundreds of miles. It’s a burden that isn’t worth the trouble. I told her it was up to whoever is in charge at the time.
I still feel like Iowa is my home. (We’ve talked about that before too. She disagrees.) I like going back to the Iowa State Fair. And I feel at home in the old house. I wouldn’t mind moving back to Iowa even though it may never happen. I liked Colorado for it’s scenic value; it symbolizes adventure in my mind. And I like Mississippi because it has seen the revival of health in my family. But I’m not from here.
My wife really likes Mississippi and I like being where she is at. So we both get something we like.
As I’ve gotten older my understanding of my parents has changed. One of the interesting things I contemplate about my mother is that she has lived pretty much her whole life in the same place. Not in the same house but within shooting distance of where the old house used to be. She gets the wanderlust frequently, and likes to go on day-long car trips every month or so and a longer vacation about once a year (maybe more often than that). They are getting older and slowing down a little bit. But I hope she can keep travelling for a long time and enjoy it. Her model isn’t a bad one: have a solid base and go on excursions.
I’m kind of a backward looking person and I have to put effort into counting my current blessings and looking ahead. So maybe I’m in a bit of that mood. Maybe that’s kind of an excursion too: what might have been different, etc.
We have plans to go tent camping in August in Moraine Park Campground, for the first time in 22 years. I probably won’t be throwing frisbee in the road or drinking hot Tang. I may find a way to fry up some canned potatoes. I’ll need to quit day-dreaming and see if the old tent is still serviceable. I did sleep in that tent in 2009 in the Long’s Peak campground for one night. So maybe I’m not completely out of practice. That’s an excursion I’m looking forward to.