Hi again,
The title of this post says it all. If you have been following along, you know that I have been kind of drifting along the last almost-two-months - often deciding where I am going just a few minutes before I arrive, extending my stay if I like it, shortening it if I don't. I have had a couple of times when I had definite plans, with an arrival time and departure time, and events scheduled. But mostly ... just traveling.
My guess a few days ago was that I would arrive back in NH sometime this weekend or the beginning of the week. I was, of course, back on the east coast and heading (generally) north. I had made it as far as Arlington VA by Monday afternoon, and spent a couple of nights with cousins who live there. I hadn't seen them in about 3 years or so - a big departure from prior years where we always got together at least once a year, in the couple of days before Thanksgiving. That patterb fell apart in the first of the last 3 years when Mother & I were in SoCal the week of Thanksgiving, and then the annual gettogether hasn't happened for the last 2 years because of Covid. It was lovely to see them, and just hang for a couple of days.
However, just recently some things on the professional/work (sometimes a 4-letter word if ever there was one) side of my life got kind of complicated. And I felt that they would be more easily handled if I was at home, with all of the resources I needed to develop necessary responses and plans. As a result of that, plus the fact that I had now been on the road for 7 1/2 weeks and had reached a point where I was ready to be back in my own bed, made me decide that it was time to actually make a plan. That plan was to, while navigating 5 online meetings liberally spread over Wednesday and Thursday, arrive home last night (Thursday).
I tried to make that work, I really did. I left Arlington just after my second online meeting of the day, at about 1:30-ish. The next meeting was scheduled for 7pm ET, so I would have time for 5-ish hours of driving time, and then would check into a hotel in time to set up at least one laptop and join the event.
Of course, ten minutes before the start of the meeting, I was sitting in ridiculous traffic trying to exit the George Washington bridge and continue my trek north. No hotel in sight, of course, and certainly nowhere to pull over to take part in a 90 minute virtual board meeting. So I signed in to the meeting, turned off the video, and participated while I drove, trusting that someone would notice me when I unmuted myself so that I could contribute to the meeting. Which is, mostly, what happened.
By the time the meeting was over, I was well into CT. I considered finding the first hotel I could, but my next virtual meeting was scheduled for 11am yesterday. That's very inconvenient time when one is moving from hotel to hotel, since check-out is usually right about that time. I could have tried to get a late checkout, I suppose. But then I would feel really rushed as I tried to make the most of my meeting and still figure out how to get moving again. And my final of the 5 meetings was at 3pm, another meeting that didn't at lend itself to being only audio or being done while I was driving.
I finally decided to just keep driving until I either arrived at home, or decided I needed to stop. But given the time, if I did end up stopping, I knew it would be easy to be home prior to that 11am Zoom.
So I drove. And drove into my driveway at about 10:45 on Wednesday evening. I can't tell you how good it felt to sleep in my own bed after this much time away. And with a snowstorm coming in a few hours. What could be better.
In some ways I felt like a reverted to my old self for a short time, driving 10 hours, for reasons that had nothing really to do with what I wanted to do, but much more to do with what I felt was necessary to do. I hope just a response to a situational need, and an aberration as I pursue my better life.
And while I'm happy to be home for a few days, I still have places to go, people to see, woods in which to walk, and maybe a painting to paint or a poem to write. I think within a week or two I will head north to Canada for a little while, depending on weather and Covid guidelines and restrictions.
So stay tuned - I expect there will be more to come, as I see where the road takes me next.
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