January 20, 2024
The dogs barked loudly, sounding the alarm. It was a few minutes after 4 AM and something was in the backyard. I turned on the lights and saw a small rabbit hopping away, exiting the fence.
The weather was bitter with the morning temperature in the teens. I woke up coughing, still recovering from last week’s cold or flu. I heard my wife grinding beans as I washed up, and I couldn’t wait to sip on some hot coffee. After feeding the dogs, my wife studied while I knocked out a writing session. After, I showered and prepped for our 9 AM departure to Raleigh. We were going into the big city for supplies.
The drive to Raleigh is always nice. I remember my life of driving through Dallas, Houston, and Austin, where there is more concrete and metal than grass or trees. The highway to Raleigh feels rural, the roadway cutting between tall pines that line the highway, save for a couple of places near a few small towns. In separate locations along the road, both near bridges, I saw two dead beavers, their dark brownish-black fur still wet and beaded. As I exited the highway and entered the city, I noticed the driving got worse. People were tailgating or weaving in and out of lanes. It was interesting. Why was everyone in such a hurry and where were they going that was so important that risking life and limb seemed a reasonable choice?
The Costco parking lot was full, and it took a bit of patience to find a spot, which was pretty far from the store’s entrance. In Texas, we made Costco trips almost weekly, but after moving to North Carolina, we seldom want to see a city if we don’t have to. This was my first time to step into the busy store for probably seven or eight months.
A sea of people and baskets packed the place, with some speeding across aisles so fast that you had to be careful, even if you were walking in a straight line. Others moved too slowly, talking casually or fully stopping right in the walkway, oblivious that others were trying to get past them. Oblivious. That’s probably the best word to describe most of the people I came across. They simply paid no attention to their surroundings. God damned city folk. Yeah, I used to be one.
I find the human experience fascinating. We walk around in the first person, peering out the windows of our eyes, feeling we are the movie star moving through a sea of extras. What’s funny is that each person feels this way from their point of view. And while it is easy to understand, engage, and be helpful to your supporting actors, it’s clear that some people don’t consider others to be as important as themselves. How could an extra be as important as the protagonist? Or, villain.
Costco used to hold a world of interesting items, and I genuinely loved visiting the place. But after living in the woods for a while now, I found most everything uninteresting or useless to my current lifestyle. I was interested in buying some more wool socks I saw online on Costco’s website, but alas, they did not have them on the showroom floor. That was the one thing I wanted. My wife picked up several items to prepare for her out-of-town school rotation coming up in one more week.
We both had enough of the busyness and chaos, and the people. We left Costco and stopped and grabbed a quick lunch, commenting on how crazy the vehicular and foot traffic were. This used to feel normal to us, but today it was exhausting. At home, I don’t see other people, whether I’m inside my home or outside in the woods. Hell, I see more deer than people in a normal week. At least the deer are quiet and keep their distance. They are also just as concerned about you as you are about them. People, on the other hand, think mostly of themselves. And while I have never claimed to like people, I can confirm that most of us suck.
After returning home, my wife spent some time studying for an upcoming exam, and I finished reading Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self Reliance. After I edited photos I recently downloaded from my camera. It was nice to have a little downtime doing something that required little thinking. I needed the headspace after being in Raleigh.
At 4 PM, we left, bundled up, to hit the trail at Lake Wilson. This winter, I have walked on many freezing days with no problem, but this evening, the wind was relentless and icy. The cold air made my face hurt, even though I was wearing a thick gaiter that covered my face, nose, and ears. It was brutally cold. The relentless and frigid wind made us walk at a fast pace, and between fighting the elements and my constantly running nose, we finished before I knew it and still not soon enough.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading home. When we arrived, we spent some time cleaning up the house before my wife sat down to study. As she did, I showered, did some more writing, and strummed my Martin guitar while thinking about how my tolerance for people had changed. Actually, I don’t think I have less patience with people. I found it surprising how everyone seemed robotic. There seemed to be very little kindness or warmth between strangers. This cold behavior is out of place in a smaller, rural community.
It was a great day. I enjoyed time with my best friend and partner, especially since we were no longer sick. Last week, our illness sucked away our weekend, but this today, I was enjoying life and feeling appreciative of the quality time away from work.