Still in Nashville
Last night just as we were supposed to be packing up the car to leave, Phoebe's mom came in and told us we should look outside. The sky was completely black, and we began to hear thunder. Immediately shifting into camp mode, I had Trevor check the radar to see a huge cell moving right toward us. Phoebe noted that her mom would rather that we stay another night instead of driving in a thunderstorm.
The weather is clearer today, and I'm all packed -- but getting the boys up and ready to go is not dissimilar to trying to get seven-year-olds up for early-morning barn chores. They've spent the morning teasing me about my dislike of eggs and asserting that eggs are the true source of happiness, and then putting words in my mouth and saying that I compared eggs to Hitler, when all I said was, "I don't really like eggs."
I don't want to rush too much, though -- this house is full of lovely people, and also walls and walls of books, which I haven't mentioned yet. It is essentially a library, carefully organized into sections, except there are so many that they creep onto every possible place that a book could potentially rest. There are enough old books that the entire house has that wonderful old-book smell in which I could luxuriate for years. At the same time, though, new adventures await, and I'm ready to hit the road for now.
There is a dog, too -- an adorable one. Her name is Zantippy (Socrates' wife, I have learned) and she is a shelter dog of unknown breed. She is medium-sized and brown with a wagging tail and one brown eye and one blue eye -- apparently she was chosen because her eyes were like David Bowie. She especially enjoys playing with a stuffed hedgehog that makes noise.
The boys are driving to St. Louis after Murray, and I may go with them and then split off to take a bus to Springfield, MO. I'm a bit torn about what to do next, since my friend in Colorado Springs can't have me stay with her until the 15th -- so if I stick to my original plan of heading west across the middle of the country and then north through California, I might run out of time. Now I'm thinking that it might be a better idea to head north first to Grand Forks, ND and then go west. Alternately, I have another friend in Orlando, FL who didn't want to put herself on the map since she'd be an outlier, but maybe I'll deviate from the original plan and spent a few days there (after all, I haven't seen her in four years), then continue on my former route. I'll see how it all develops.
The weather is clearer today, and I'm all packed -- but getting the boys up and ready to go is not dissimilar to trying to get seven-year-olds up for early-morning barn chores. They've spent the morning teasing me about my dislike of eggs and asserting that eggs are the true source of happiness, and then putting words in my mouth and saying that I compared eggs to Hitler, when all I said was, "I don't really like eggs."
I don't want to rush too much, though -- this house is full of lovely people, and also walls and walls of books, which I haven't mentioned yet. It is essentially a library, carefully organized into sections, except there are so many that they creep onto every possible place that a book could potentially rest. There are enough old books that the entire house has that wonderful old-book smell in which I could luxuriate for years. At the same time, though, new adventures await, and I'm ready to hit the road for now.
There is a dog, too -- an adorable one. Her name is Zantippy (Socrates' wife, I have learned) and she is a shelter dog of unknown breed. She is medium-sized and brown with a wagging tail and one brown eye and one blue eye -- apparently she was chosen because her eyes were like David Bowie. She especially enjoys playing with a stuffed hedgehog that makes noise.
The boys are driving to St. Louis after Murray, and I may go with them and then split off to take a bus to Springfield, MO. I'm a bit torn about what to do next, since my friend in Colorado Springs can't have me stay with her until the 15th -- so if I stick to my original plan of heading west across the middle of the country and then north through California, I might run out of time. Now I'm thinking that it might be a better idea to head north first to Grand Forks, ND and then go west. Alternately, I have another friend in Orlando, FL who didn't want to put herself on the map since she'd be an outlier, but maybe I'll deviate from the original plan and spent a few days there (after all, I haven't seen her in four years), then continue on my former route. I'll see how it all develops.