Zapped, but only of strength for today. The Drive beckons.

Last thoughts from my soon-to-be-former Minneapolis home.

Only piddly things remain to be boxed, for the most part, and we'll get the floors cleaned once the movers have boosted all of the boxes and wrapped all the furniture to get out of here.  Unbelievable how much has ended up in the Dumpster, how much is/was worn out, unusable, or simply not needed anymore.  It's different from any other move I've made in that if it's not in a box, it's (probably) not coming along.  No driving from the current residence across town; it's across-the-country-time, baby.

No time or (especially) money for the State Fair this year.  There will be other places to marvel at all of the animals in the barns and eat fried foods with tons of yokels and people pushing strollers and everything.  Had to break impromptu plans with Will for a beer, which was a bummer, but at the time I had wanted to meet him at the Triple Rock, I had just loaded my laundry into the dryer at the laundromat, still to eat dinner and pack still more things.


But no more packing for tonight.

As I walked outside to bring some of the last trash out, the muggy air suddenly, and arrestingly, reminded me of being a boy needing to come inside for the night after playing with other neighborhood kids as the last dregs of summer were fading away, before the dullness of grade school began again.  As I looked over the hedge to the back parking lot of Market BBQ, I remembered myself running or biking back home after hearing my parents' call.  Times really were so much simpler then, and like with most anyone's life, I had no way of knowing what the future held.

But now, I do.

I walked to the front of this building and looked out up and down LaSalle Avenue, still people about, looked across at Emerson School and thought of all the jumping and shouting I heard so often.  I'll miss living in this apartment, but it's time to go, time to make the move I've been planning for so long, the one I knew I had to make as soon as I put to rest my days of touring as a member of a hardcore punk band, with all the memories that were created while my longing for travel was sated.  There is simply no opportunity for me here anymore - interest rates can't last like this forever and I can only wonder what will happen to my departed mortgage industry once the rates go back up again.  It's a testament to how bad it is everywhere else that...

And just as I realize that I no longer have to think those thoughts, the clock nearly strikes midnight.  Bedtime, then the touch-up, then the drive to my new life begins.