BACK HOME
Today Sue Coke flew home to England and I returned home to Marshall although “home” doesn’t sound like quite the right word. For years home was 140 College View Drive with Kathe my wife. For the two of us it was home, the center of our lives. But then in April I abandoned my home of 35 years and moved out to Marshall, leaving home for good. Now I live in an apartment in Marshall but don’t think of it as being home. In fact, it feels as if I am on a journey with the first stop being the apartment in Marshall where I am getting to know some people but don’t really belong. And this feeling was enhanced by leaving for three weeks in June to visit Winsen, Germany, Kathe’s hometown, with my sons family and then in August suddenly flying to Lincoln, England with Susie to visit her British cousins. Marshall seemed a place where I stopped for a few weeks between trips. And then, of course, there was the air ticket I bought for November to Rome which was first going to be a visit with Rob Amberg to Sicily, then shifted to being a month on the island of Paros, Greece, with my landlady Efi, but shifted again almost immediately to a month in Perugia with my daughter, Susie and when that fell through at the last moment and I had promised my apartment to Susan Coke for two and a half weeks, I had the mad hatter idea that I would fly to Amsterdam for two weeks when niece Henny was on vacation, which was a nutty idea and didn’t work out, replaced by staying with my son for two and a half weeks in Asheville, 15 miles away.
I had a great time at my son’s home doing whatever he and his wife, Kathy, were doing. I watched television with them in the evening, went out to eat with them a few times and got a feel for what their daily life is like. It was as stimulating and fun as any of the four distant places I attempted to visit and a lot cheaper.
So now I am back in Marshall again which seems like part of an extended journey. I will be here until January when I go back to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 