Vistas, Present and Past

My spouse is waking up to a very different vista:

He's not too far from the farms where your Christmas tree likely was born.

Why am I not there?  I could be spending this afternoon reading on this porch:

Well, my life is different than it was 3 years ago when we first went to Lutherock for my spouse's Board meeting.  I have grades for my online classes due on Monday, which means I have grading to do this week-end.  Lutherock is isolated enough in the mountains of North Carolina that I can't count on getting any kind of Internet connection there.

Of course, I could have made that work if I wanted to--but if I went, we'd have gone by car, and it's a very long drive, with the last 5 hours through small towns and up twisty roads.  It was easier to buy my spouse an airline ticket and send him on his way.

Still, I feel those mountains tug at me.  I'd like a breath of cooler air. 

I'm also thinking of our trip two years ago, when my parents met us there.  On Saturday, my uncle came over from his house in North Carolina, and it was a delightful afternoon of hikes and good conversation. 

We had just bought our house close to the beach before selling our old house, and I remember feeling a bit fretful about money.  I remember sitting on the porch in the above picture, and my mom asking if I was really worried.  I told her that I wasn't, even though I was.  We agreed that it would all work out.

And it has.

Part of the way it worked out:  the online classes that I'm teaching.  I often wonder if I'd have been eager to seize that opportunity if I hadn't been fretful about the money.  I might have--I might have wanted to have that skill represented on my CV if I need a different job. 

I'm also feeling grateful that our old house sold quickly.  I'm grateful that my spouse didn't hold out for more money; we learned our lesson from the great housing crash which caught us holding a condo after his mom's death, a condo that took us years to sell, as my husband's expectations chased the market down.

I have real estate on the brain as we approach the 2 year anniversary of putting the old house on the market.  We got back from Lutherock, cleaned up the old house a bit more, and waited hopefully.

I'm glad we didn't have to wait long.

Today, instead of the mountains, this vista will be mine:

I'm having a picnic with some friends who teach in the public schools.  Their summer comes to an end soon, and we want to have one last pool day.  I'm happy to provide the pool, and we'll have a picnic lunch.

And then I'll do some more grading until it's time to pick my spouse up from the airport.  Maybe I'll write a poem this afternoon.

And I'll keep counting my blessings along the way.