"The Sound of Silence"

Although it may seem like I'm constantly complaining about living in East Nowheresville, I do enjoy the solitude. Last night, for example, I stepped outside to grab something out of my car at about 9 o'clock. I immediately froze because, for the first time in a while, I heard absolutely nothing. Although we've lived out here for seven months (with five to go) I've never really been out at night much. My "day job" requires me to be up at a reasonable hour, and there's not much to do here once the sun goes down anyway — or when it's up for that matter.

Coming from a somewhat more rural environment (although Mayberry could be considered rural compared to this place), I'm used to a little noise, but the tranquility has certainly been relaxing. There's nothing as cool as hearing Connor's tiny voice booming across our quiet cove when he calls for Murphy.

But, the solace comes at a price — realized once again today as Connor and I made the hour drive into Greenville to have Stacey's car serviced at the dealership. While the car was being worked on, Connor watched a Wiggles DVD, thus inducing a state of near-catatonia. Once the car was ready, instead of heading home, I decided we'd do a little sightseeing — in addition to a romp at Toys R Us and a fancy lunch at the greatest restaurant in the entire world: Taco Bell (and, no, I'm not kidding...seriously).

My grandparents lived in Greenville when I was growing up, and it's a town I'll forever associate with visiting them. The only time I've been back since we moved my grandfather into assisted living in Atlanta ten years ago was for his funeral in 2001. It's always a surreal experience visiting a place that you remember from childhood but haven't seen with adult's eyes. Driving around I found many familiar haunts (the professional building near my grandparent's house where I used to skate, the Fresh Market, a run down used car dealership that used to have a train car as it's office building...the train car is gone now, but the lot is still called "The Train Used Cars"). Even though it was nice to see all these places again (including my grandparents' old house and the cemetary where their earth-bound bodies are buried) I couldn't help but feel a little cheated.

Stacey still has all of her grandparents — and until a few years ago, she still had a great-grandparent. Living closer to Greenville than I ever have before, it would be unbelievably fantastic to have Gran and Gramps so close to us and have Connor get to know them.

Plus, I'd have a ride around town when we needed to have Stacey's car serviced.

What?!