Return from Quilt Camp

I had a lovely trip back down the mountain on Sunday.  The drive itself was fairly easy, although I'm not sure I've ever seen that much traffic on a Sunday; at one point, I wondered if there was a football game or something I had missed.

I spent Sunday night with a grad school friend in Columbia, South Carolina.  She made us a delicious lunch, and then we did what we always do, we drove around the beautiful neighborhoods around the University of South Carolina campus.  So many of the houses were decorated for the season, either the season of Halloween or the season of Autumn.

Many of the houses were also decorated for the political season, and I was surprised at how many Biden signs I saw and even more for Jaime Harrison, the man running against Lindsey Graham.  We were in neighborhoods where the very wealthy live, the ones who have been voting Republican for most of my lifetime.  If there's a blue wave in South Carolina, you heard it here first. 

On our way back, I decided that I really did want some pumpkins, so we went back to the church pumpkin patch that we had driven by earlier.  They had some smaller pumpkins, and they were a good deal.  I like supporting church pumpkin patches, but there are very few this year.  I didn't want pumpkins badly enough to buy them at a Wal-Mart, plus most of those types of stores have only the very large pumpkins, along with some tiny ones.

I slept really well--of course, the morning I could have kept sleeping is the one where I need to be up and on the road.  But off I went, and I was glad that I did, because there was some serious road construction that showed no signs of wrapping up as I drove by at 5:30 a.m.  I would have probably had delays if I had waited to leave.

The driving trip up and back was easy; I feel very lucky.  I had such a wonderful time away--here, too, I feel lucky.  I had creative time and time to reconnect with friends, and I got some long-term projects done, along with some of the weekly chores that must be done (primarily with my online classes).

I spent some time marveling at how long it's been since I've been away, and even longer since I had a trip where I stayed by myself.  I know that not everyone would react this way, but I felt it was very restorative.  

I wonder what it would be like to attend a similar retreat that was focused on writing.  Would I get a similar amount done?  Would I emerge at the other side of the retreat marveling at all that I had accomplished?

My spouse also benefitted from my being away.  I got home to discover the delight of home repairs completed:  barn doors hung, ceiling fan hung, new bed frame for guest room bed assembled, furniture moved, TV stand reassembled, TV hung in the bedroom.

Should I be concerned about the fact that we're both so much more efficient when we're away from each other?  I've decided not to worry too much, and to just be grateful that we're getting anything done at all--it's a very strange time in the life of our nation.