Freedom in a Can: Adventures with Hamlet

Here is another installment of reflections on our time in Boone, Shari had her take, I had my own.  They essentially say the same thing -- we weren't ready to come home yet.  But it's all in the details, eh?  Viva la difference ! I don’t want to come across as Randian here, but there’s work if you want it.   Not being able to find gainful employment in the High Country of North Carolina really doesn’t match with my experience despite the recent economic downturn.   Of course it helps if you have a good relationship with people in your home town, and people who own businesses which could use your skills.   Nor does it hurt if you have skills, and if you care little that those skills might have you down on your belly in the crawl space of a century-old building removing a bucket load of human feces, urine soaked toilet paper and other such detritus from the wacked out plumbing.    Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about – that master’s degree ...

When we left the High Country of NC on September 3, 2012, we weren’t sure if/when we’d return to these ancient mountains we had called home for 13 years.  We knew we’d come back to visit family and friends, but had no plans of returning for any length of time.  By the time we left last year, we were so exhausted from our pace of life in Boone, it took us almost 2 months to feel normal/rested again.  We started sleeping 9-10 hours per night.  Hutch was overly concerned that this was unhealthy behavior, while I celebrated that I was sleeping comfortably for more than 5 hours per night.  We shutter when we think about all that we accomplished in those last few weeks and vowed to never let our lives get so out of hand again.     As our astute, therapist friend Amy so simply put it, everyone has triggers that cause them to fall back into old patterns.  For some, it’s going home for the holidays to spend time with family.  For us, ...