Impatience is a Waste of Time

We are on the verge of moving closer into town. You may have heard about it. I may have said something. We are obsessed. I can't think of anything else. It's a month away and we've already started packing. We've already picked out our paint colors - we want to be prepared, you know!

But there's only so much that can be done ahead of time. After a while, planning and preparation turn into academic exercises and, no matter how excited and motivated I may be, I really just have to wait. And that has become a bit of a problem, because it has left me feeling empty, impotent and frustrated. That, in turn, has caused a little bit of angst and a little bit of depression.

What I realized, however, is that I am living in the future. I spend every day fantasizing about how great the new living situation is going to be. Sometimes I find myself holdingunrealistically rosy views of things and I am reminded of a song from An American Tail, "There are no Cats in America." But the new house will be great - I don't even think that I'm being unrealistic about it.

The problem is that my life isn't terrible now. It's pretty great, actually, and when I focus on the future, I am missing - completely missing - what's happening right now! I don't want to miss the entire month of July just because I live in Wake Forest instead of Raleigh. And that's what I aim to do now. Forget the future. Forget the new house. Forget packing. Forget how much shorter my drive to work will be (2 miles down from 15!) and how much closer we will be to the things we love to do (our friends, Lilly's Pizza, Remedy Diner, the Rialto, the Farmer's Market, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's - coming soon!) and how great the house is going to be (fenced yard for the dogs, neighborhood dog park, screened front porch with a swing, a basement for me to brew beer). Instead I should focus on the things that are slipping by me.

Time is precious. I hope to live to the age of 60 - if I'm lucky I'll live to 75. Any way you cut it, I'm almost halfway done. This is by no means a mid-life crisis happening, but I am aware that my hours are limited. They are ticking down even now, each hour lost forever. And to spend even a minute waiting for the next one is to waste a very precious and limited resource.

Foggy Monday

Saturday was packed full of downtown Raleigh goodness. We went to the Farmers Market and had breakfast and picked up some fresh squash and onions. The Farmers Market is huge - when we live closer (and no matter what we find for housing, we will certainly be closer), we will be able to go to there as an actual regular produce market. They sell fresh baked goods, fresh local goat cheese and local honey in addition to the local fruits and vegetables - many of which I have never seen before.

After that we went and checked out houses. There was a pair of houses we had marked out specifically to visit, but after seeing both of those (both were good, each had pros and cons and they both depend on seeing the interior) we moved on to driving up and down and in and out of neighborhoods. Now that we have a large list of prospects, it is getting very exciting. We're starting to think about painting, which we did not do at the Mill (thank goodness!).

The benefits to moving into town are tangible and exciting - not only will we have quick access to restaurants and coffee shops and Whole Foods and, in a year, a new Trader Joe's (the one that is here is in Cary and not exactly convenient), but we'll also be in a neighborhood with people. Not that the Mill doesn't have people, but they are kind of reclusive. They are the kind of people who enjoy living in relative isolation (there's a Super Target ten minutes away, so it isn't quite the middle of nowhere) and not really fun to spend time with. However, there are also some things that we'll lose by moving. Things like this beautiful morning, as you can see below, will be missed.

Misty river

Ahh, November! Such a fantastic month - it has traditionally been my favorite, although we'll have to see how that plays out with some actual 'winter weather.' We went to an apartment sponsored Halloween party last night (sorry, we forgot to take pictures) and got to meet several of our neighbors. One of our main topics of conversation was the weather - we regaled them with tales of warm winters and 80 degree Christmases - and, in turn, we were given a clearer idea of what to expect as fall turns into winter. For one thing, many residents come from colder climates - Wisconsin, Nova Scotia, etc - so our shock at the cold weather did not really impress them.

But time marches on and the seasons change with or without us. The temperature this morning was 40 degrees. I took some pictures of the river that was steaming in the cold air.
Remember - there is an open invitation for anyone to come visit. We have a spare bedroom with a view of this very river.

Sleeping dogs

Here's some pictures of our sleepy dogs.

Julian never got up on the couch before. This is an entirely new thing for him. It's probably because the floor is so cold...
And Lux is keeping warm under her fleece.

Leaves in full color

This is not necessarily representative of the general foliage color, but it is certainly not isolated.

Today was another of those beautiful ones. Clear skies, cold air - cold to me, anyway. We kept the windows open and wore jackets outside. And it'll probably be too cold to keep the windows up all night. And it's only October!

Speaking of which, there are pumpkins for sale on the side of the road now. All we need now is a cinnamon broom.

Look at the river flow

Please enjoy this small, quiet video. The building at the start is where we live, although our actual unit is on the other side of the building so we don't have a river view. I know it isn't a huge deal - plenty of people live on rivers and I'm not saying that ours is the best. But ours is ours and we love it.

It is such an ecstatically wonderful day outside that I can't stop talking about it. I love Fall!

Oh, hello!

This is intended to be a short, uncomplicated post about our apartment. Please forgive the unsightly stereo - I'm sure Bronwen would prefer that I didn't put these pictures up at all. But I know that some of you have been wanting to see what the interior of our place looks like. So please enjoy a brief tour of the downstairs.


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