Back east

I know, I get it. Easterners will never agree with this. But there was a perceptible change probably some time about the time I entered the Central Time Zone yesterday, on my way to Lincoln, Nebraska (I only stopped in North Platte). I started seeing trees.

This morning, I had to run some errands: Get ice, get more Amy’s Tofu Scrambles, get Techron (I left the territory served by Chevron someplace in Wyoming), get gas, and if possible, get a car wash. The latter because I really like being able to see through my windshield and I like my headlights to illuminate something other than the insect carcasses glued to the lens.

So I wound up doing a little driving around Lincoln accomplishing that shit, which made me, again, late checking in tonight. But as I was driving around Lincoln, I was thinking of Dormont, Pennsylvania, where my mother grew up. Then, I corrected myself: No, this is a bit more like Mount Lebanon, the neighboring town where we lived for a couple years between stints in San Francisco.

And then I was thinking, wait a minute. It can’t just be that every place east of the Missouri River and a few west of it is going to remind me of Pittsburgh suburbs, is it?

The short answer is, yes. Mainly because of the trees. Out west, we have some deciduous trees and lots of evergreens–cypress, redwood, and many more. Here, it’s kind of the opposite. Lots more deciduous, only some of which, at this time of year, is barely beginning to sprout leaves, all leaving exposed the trees themselves in a shot (above) I might associate more with autumn than (here) early spring.

So I was late leaving Lincoln and, having failed to find Amy’s Tofu Scrambles at the Lincoln Whole Foods, I had to stop at the one in West Des Moines. This worked out: I was also able to get some lunch there, which is good because it’s after midnight now here at the hotel in Oregon, Ohio, too late to be having the microwave beep at full volume incessantly. I’d have been here sooner had I not eaten lunch; but not enough sooner.

But that also limits how far I’m going to get catching up on news. It certainly won’t all be tonight and I’m calling it a night.


 

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