Ulterior Motives

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

When we were visiting friends on Hitching Trail (the street we lived on during the last year and a half while in Texas) our kids got right back into the routine of playing with the other kids that lived on the same street. I mean, the van had not even come to a stop in front of our old house before they jumped out and were running down the street announcing their return. While the son was the same age as several children, the daughter really only had one friend that was the same age. Let me go back a bit though to paint a bigger picture.

Ever since we migrated back to Indiana, the wife has been second guessing our move. This mostly raises its ugly head when there is bad (i.e. cold) weather but also comes into play when we are missing a particular restaurant, store, building, etc, or when we are missing our friends. She has openly fantasized about returning to Texas off and on for about a year now (so, since day one of our return). She not only wants to return to Texas but also wants to return to the same street so we have the same neighbors. She just wants to go back to the way things were. Based on the changes to Hitching Trail and to our church in Texas, it is just not possible to get back to the way things were. Things just change.

OK, back to the daughter's friend on our old street. It seems that her family had to move only a few weeks before we visited. No one on the street seems to know exactly why but a few commented that it was all of a sudden. So when the daughter knocked on the front door of her friend's house, there was no answer. Once she was told by another kid on the street that the family had moved, she was heartbroken. As the wife and I were walking from one friend's house to another, we saw our sad daughter. Once she calmed down and was able to tell us what was upsetting her, we tried to console her. That is to say, I tried to console her. The wife's mind was too busy at work thinking of how big that house was and scheming to plot a plan to convince me to look into it. I called her on this and after a brief time of denial she gave me the "how do you always know what I am thinking!" look. I explained to her (for the thousandth time) that we could not move back (plus the house was over 3,200 sq ft and way out of our price range). This did not stop her from spending 90% of our time telling me how much she missed Texas and how she would sell a kidney to get back.

Our first week back has allowed here to settle back into her misery here (it has not been above freezing in a few weeks and we have this weird thing called freezing fog lately too). If you couple that with the fact that the garage (where we have our washer and dryer) is so cold that the pipes freeze and she can't do laundry and you can see how she is constantly reminded of how bad it is here. Spring can't come soon enough for her (or me).

One thing that I have not mentioned to you yet is my New Year's Resolutions. I made (3) but I only wish to tell you about one at this time (just in case I break the other 2 [I have not broke them yet]). I resolved to purchase no new music this year. I estimate that I bought 100 cds in the last 3 months of 2009. I have not had time to listen to all of them yet. In fact, I still have stuff I have bought in 2008 that I have not listened to more than once or twice. So this year I am not going to purchase any new music and force myself to listen to what I have. So far (6 weeks or so in), so good. As long as I keep away from the pawn shops, used book stores, and goodwill stores, I should be ok.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon