The Saturday Morning Post

The Saturday Morning Post - Home

My father would have told you that "home is where I hang my hat, and I don't wear a hat anymore".

Where am I from is a complicated answer. I was born in Michigan, north of Detroit out in middle of nowhere. I lived in Phoenix for a short time as a child. Then back to Michigan. I went to half of high school in Michigan, and half of it in Florida, changing schools 10 times in the last five years of my public school education. I lived in central Florida for almost two decades after high school. Moved to Lexington Kentucky, went to graduate school in Louisville, living in Kentucky 13 years. I have been in the Washington DC area nearly 14 years. See, that is complicated, and I left some of the details out. For most people it is a simple question. I have met people who lived and died within 100 mile radius. My life has stretched across thousands of miles.

I like to think that all of those moves when I was in school, prepared me for making home, wherever I am. It takes a little time to develop connections and a routine. To learn the local values and customs. To get over saying, "back home we do it differently." Nothing will make the locals hate you faster than telling them that things are better where you came from. When I was in high school in Florida the mother of a friend of mine simply said, there are northbound lanes on I-95, if it is better there, GO! She also said there are two kinds of Yankees, Yankees come here and spend money and we kind of like them, and damned Yankees, move here and try to tell us how to live and we hate them.

Am I done moving? Most likely. There are only a few places I think I would like to live, and despite being fully invested in an expensive housing market, a couple of them are out of our price range (San Francisco.) We have feathered the nest here. We are comfortable. We are Home.

Comments

Saturday Morning Post: In lieu of flowers

I read this in an obituary recently: In lieu of flowers or cards, Jim would want you to write a card or letter to someone that is special to you. Dear Travel Penguin Blog Readers, I never met Jim, kinda wish I had. He lived near where I was born and raised, I often check obits there, people around my age are often people I crossed paths with when I was growing up. Those 20-30 years older are often the parents of people I grew up with. Sadly sometimes the younger ones are the children of my classmates. You are special to me. I know a handful of you. I wake up everyday looking forward to interacting in the comments. The statistics tell me there are many more that read, than I have never seen a comment from. I write for everyone of you. My sincere hope is that a photo I have posted, or a phrase I have crafted, makes your day a little better. I hope through these photos and words I am able to express that life will be...

The Way We Wednesday - Self-Timer Selfies

My oldest brother had a low draft lottery number, so he enlisted in the Navy the year he finished high school. After basic training, he was assigned to the Aircraft Carrier Enterprise (now decommissioned and the last I knew it was being dismantled.) Someplace in southeast Asia he bought a Canon Ftb, a nice 35MM SLR. There was also a tripod, the gray zippered case above their arms is the case for the tripod. Looking at this it was taken with the camera on the tripod, and either a cable release or the self timer, I suspect the self timer as Dale is almost blurred from having tripped the timer and rushed back to be in the picture. This would have been taken in one of the crew living areas on the ship. I think Dale only took a couple of rolls of film on the camera, this roll of slides ended up with dad's meaning it was probably in the camera when Dale came home on leave, and somehow Dad ended up keeping the camera. Dad gave it to me a few years b...

Thursday Ramble - Late April edition

I have made the first purchase for the kitchen replacement, a new faucet, and the next day the kitchen sink. Both should be here by the time this posts. The faucet is black and square, there was a TV commercial of a couple walking into an architect, placing a faucet on the desk and saying "design us a house around this." Yes, that kind of a statement piece. Appliances remain the major loose end. I am in a crazy busy cycle at the work, three major trainings in two days, and another next week. My first board meeting since becoming director is Friday, I get to shake things up. And it is budgeting season. And we are officially returning to the office. Glad I am taking a week off in May. I am back in a reading frenzy, I bought a stack of books in NYC, and I am almost done with those. More on the Kindle to read. It was nice to get into ink and paper bookstores a couple of times. There is a nice small bookstore ...

myxer

Search This Blog