I'm Going to Miss All of You
This is my first post about why I'm riding and why donating to Water Life Hope will make Schrödinger's cat purr with delight.
Trip preparation is starting to subsume larger chunks of days. I'm wandering around Decatur doing errands and starting to have lots of lasts: last time I turn in a book at the library, last time I get my hair cut, last time I get a Sydney Salad Burrito. No, it's not on the menu at Raging Burrito any longer but they indulge the locals. Some of the wait staff know that's my order when I walk in.
Decatur is a tiny, shiny place. Our friends and neighbors are in and out of our house every day. Walking home from the train, all of a mile, is often a 45-minute project because you see all kinds of people you know on the way home. Decatur hosts the offices of Giggling Otter Enterprises, a very Decatur name for a corporation. Our Halloween parade features the Wasted Potential Brass Band. And they're terrific.
We arrived here in 1979, moving around the City's four square miles as our needs changed. Decatur has been Yurman Central except for a short, misguided period when we moved for a job. Thank goodness we rented our house out, rather than selling it. Our longest absences since the early '90s have been three weeks for a family bicycle trip out west and another three for our 40th anniversary trip to Bali.
Riding across America will take 10 to 12 weeks at the pace we anticipate. No early eucharist at Holy Trinity Parish. No bicycle love at Bicycle South. No training loops through Kirkwood. No cargo bike runs to the Dekalb Farmer's Market. No bumping into a city commissioner. No drop-in dinners with son Matt, who lives in the City just a mile away.
The trip will be an adventure, but everything has a cost. This costs being away from Decatur. We're so lucky to have a home like this. And we're lucky to be able to have a long, lovely bike trip. We'll just miss all of it, and all of you.
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| Our house this morning, accompanied by Ed |
Trip preparation is starting to subsume larger chunks of days. I'm wandering around Decatur doing errands and starting to have lots of lasts: last time I turn in a book at the library, last time I get my hair cut, last time I get a Sydney Salad Burrito. No, it's not on the menu at Raging Burrito any longer but they indulge the locals. Some of the wait staff know that's my order when I walk in.
Decatur is a tiny, shiny place. Our friends and neighbors are in and out of our house every day. Walking home from the train, all of a mile, is often a 45-minute project because you see all kinds of people you know on the way home. Decatur hosts the offices of Giggling Otter Enterprises, a very Decatur name for a corporation. Our Halloween parade features the Wasted Potential Brass Band. And they're terrific.
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| Like everyone else in Georgia, I get excited when it snows. It's when we take pictures of our houses. |
Riding across America will take 10 to 12 weeks at the pace we anticipate. No early eucharist at Holy Trinity Parish. No bicycle love at Bicycle South. No training loops through Kirkwood. No cargo bike runs to the Dekalb Farmer's Market. No bumping into a city commissioner. No drop-in dinners with son Matt, who lives in the City just a mile away.
The trip will be an adventure, but everything has a cost. This costs being away from Decatur. We're so lucky to have a home like this. And we're lucky to be able to have a long, lovely bike trip. We'll just miss all of it, and all of you.
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