This parental duty, which I'm glad to do, adds up to 60 miles a day. I'm also glad that the price of gas is staying low.The drive-time offers certain benefits, like catching the spawns' moods immediately after a day of learning and socializing. I'm using my truck's satellite radio, tuned to "Bluegrass Junction," as a conversation-starter -- facing that kind of music, they start talking just to get me to turn down the volume.
For variety, and when time's not a concern, I've been taking different routes to the schools. I don't venture too far afield, but I rather enjoy zigging and zagging my way through our rural-suburbia and gliding across the expanses of farmland between here and there.
There's pleasure in noticing.
In more residential areas, I see that most of my neighbors, unlike me, have finished their fall chores -- leaves are picked up and lawn furniture is stowed 'til spring. Sadly, there are lots of for-sale signs. Empty houses, too. Not good.
As houses give way to farms, what I observe is more to my liking. I find solace in watching deer step through icy fields, as if practicing their footing for harsher days to come. I get a few moments' entertainment from a pair of mad chickadees, puffed up against the cold November wind, circling and perching, circling and perching just to stay warm.
Long views are longer this time of year. Now-leafless trees expose clearings hidden during warmer months, and I spy old houses, barns and outbuildings I hadn't noticed only a few weeks ago. This great, rich landscape seems to have grown larger while my back was turned.
In a field next to the road, a black-and-white barn cat stalks its prey.
This afternoon, the spawns and I detoured past a house that burned last night. It's just a mile down the road from us, so we'd heard the sirens as we drifted off to sleep. A big blue tarp has been draped over the charred wood where a roof used to be. It looks to be short of a total loss -- good news for a fortunate family.
Just before we pulled into our driveway, our older spawn announced an observation of his own -- the battle flag of the Confederacy flies from a tall pole in front of a nearby house. Free speech notwithstanding, in this time and place that's disconcerting.
There may indeed be pleasure in noticing, but not everything I see is wholly pleasant. Now I have some "research" to do.
