In which I relate my activities on a pleasant fall weekend, speak of The Gobbler, and offer some random thoughts on life.

I visited my mom this weekend. It had been awhile since I had seen her and I missed her. So I took an hour-long drive through scenic countryside on a sunny Saturday and I was in (what I suppose is) my hometown. JoAnn was still in town and spending the day with her niece. I stopped by and visited with them for a little while. We were talking about visiting the new coffee shop in town or Pendragon Games. (A coffee shop and a gaming shop in Clintonville?! Why couldn’t they have had this kind of thing when I lived there? Sheesh…) Unfortunately the coffee shop was closed and JoAnn’s niece was out in the woods playing. So we chatted and later her niece took us out to see her handiwork in the woods.

Next, to my mom’s. (I should mention that Matt was calling me all through these visits. He was out shopping for accessories for his new toy and needed some advice. He refers to me as his AndyCare support plan.) Isabelle was very happy to see me (and I think my mom was too). We had a pleasant evening talking and sharing news. She also got to unload a pot roast on me. (You see, she hasn’t been eating much meat since she lives alone and my brother is a vegetarian so she takes advantage and cleans out the freezer when I visit. Not that I mind a bit.) After she went to bed I kind of gorged myself on cable TV (I only get 4 stations at home) and stayed up entirely too late. But it was worth it to catch one of those wacky CHiPs episodes.

I woke up to “It’s time to get up in the moooorrrrning!” (as only my mother can perform it) just in time for the Packer game. It was exciting but they lost in overtime. Then I watched the Trading Spaces $100 Grand special episode. Finally I did something I had wanted to do all week; take pictures. Unfortunately the color had really peaked a couple of days before, but I still got some great pictures. I hung around through the evening and then headed home to rest. On Monday it was back to the grind.

Monday’s great find was The Institute of Official Cheer. The section that caught my imagination was The Grooviest Hotel In Wisconsin. I was fascinated by it. I had seen it from the road dozens, if not hundreds, of times and always felt it calling out to me. I never knew why. But this website finally told me what was inside that mysterious building. Now I really had to go! Alas, it was not to be. Farewell, dear Gobbler. I hardly knew thee.

Random thought: Things end. I know that. But a lot of things in my life have been ending without me having any choice in the matter. My dad is gone, three of my grandparents are gone, and I would bet money that my current position at work will be eliminated by the new year, just to name a few. These were all things that would have happened no matter what I did. I don’t know how I feel about not having control. On one hand, it’s kind of nice to just go with the flow and have your next steps kind of planned out. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind having some say in where my life is going.

Of course, I am about to hit the end of this roller coaster. I’m going to be set completely loose. There really isn’t too much of a reason for me to follow any particular path. I can go anywhere and do anything right now. I have nothing tying me down. In short, the exact opposite of the paragraph above. Does that make me happy? Not really. I find that I am grasping for things to confine my choices to a smaller number. The sheer variety of choices is daunting and the choices I make in the next year will set the tone of my life for a long time to come. It’s a situation I find myself uncomfortable with.

So I sit and ponder my choices. I play though endless possible futures and how my decisions might affect them. It try to decide what doors I want to close and what other ones I want to open. And after all that, I know that there is some unknown event lurking in my future. This is the event that will precipitate my decisions. I have some ideas as to what it might be and how things will go, but I’m in no hurry. My life is good right now.