Yesterday the family piled in the car and returned to the City on the Make. Schools are starting, and other obligations are beginning. Of course, after a rainy weekend, the sun came out on Sunday and taunted us as we packed, cleaned, stored and drove off. Typical weather for the end of a vacation–I wish I could keep track of the weather every Sunday evening since we’ve been going to the lake house, because it always seems to be sunny, warm and perfect.
So after a pasta dinner tonight, I took a stroll through Lincoln Square, to see what’s been going on around the area. Couple stores opened, a couple closed. No real surprises. Both bookstores are still there (man, we are fortunate around this hood), and looking like they’re doing okay. An artist lined up a lot of canvases on the sidewalk near the square, which was cool and something it would be good to see more often. The Davis is still showing movies, and my favorite bars are still open. Pretty soon Half Acre Brewing will have a tasting room at their brewery on Lincoln, so I can have my mail forwarded there.
Yep, it looks like everything proceeded along without me the past two months. The nerve of this city, ignoring my absence! As usual, coming back here after the summer was filling me with a little dread: too much noise, too many cars, too many people. Oh, and the writing projects call again, now that vacation is over. It’s always more pleasant to think about great projects than to watch what they end up being.
But as I type, I realize these are the exact reasons I’m not ready to live full time up in farm and lake country. I need the distractions. I need the loudness, and the people. I need things to keep changing. Without it, I don’t think I’d be able to survive. Hanging out on the water is a lot of fun, and certainly refreshing, but I still need to talk to people about something other than the fish and whether the State of Michigan will implode on itself.
So the Garners still get the best of both worlds. A place to relax, and a place to get wound up. I wish these two things to all of you. Oh, and some fresh caught fish.