Time flies
It's hard to believe sometimes, but we've lived on the Cape for more than a decade. We moved down here when Emmeline was born, and I never planned to stay for very long. It's not that I absolutely adore Cape Cod -- though it's hard not to like this time of year -- but I discovered that once you put down roots in a place, it's very, very hard to uproot yourself and go somewhere else. As the family has grown from two to three kids, and as two of those kids have been diagnosed with mental illnesses that have required us to create a network of doctors, therapists and service providers, it seems we've gotten more and more entrenched.
As the kids have gotten older and have developed friendships, the possibility of us picking up and going somewhere seems even more remote. It's likely that we'll stay at least until the kids are old enough to move out or got o school, which won't be probably for another decade anyway.
If the past decade is any example, it'll fly by.
Still, all that time in one place -- the most time I've ever spent in a single place in my entire life, I should add -- has had some distinct benefits. One of them is knowing how to get around.
This afternoon I had to take James to a birthday party on the other side of town, and I needed to run an errand and then go to Emme's friend's house to pick up some stuff she forgot after their playdate yesterday. I managed to do the entire circuit without ever taking the same road twice, except for the last three miles or so -- almost all of it back roads that were off the marked routes where most of the traffic is.
And, as I said, Cape Cod in June is pretty hard to beat. It's still cool -- a bit too cool for swimming -- but it's a sunny day and warm enough to drive around with the windows rolled down, and everything is in bloom. It was a pretty drive.