Day 197

after showering off the lingering pungency left from yesterday's stop at a natural hot springs, i made some pancakes and coffee. actually, there's a lot to be said about the weekend as a whole that i never got around to describe. a van filled with music gear and three musicians are driving to their first gig together through canadian rockies valleys and cliffs and ledges and stopping for cheap coffee at gas stations along the way and analyzing the newest death cab album. stuff like that.

the sun is warm on my back through the big window in the kitchen and we just put a large map of canada on the wall. rockford and the chicagoland area barely made the cut in the deepest south of the paper and, in fact, command the map's only outcropping of green land against an otherwise consistent straight white border. there's just enough room to see home and i've been looking at the map for a while now and finding this visual presence of home a satisfactory addition to the wall. i like maps. once i bought an atlas and followed lines and highways in my mind and across the paper to various places on the west coast. like seattle. portland.

i did get birthday cards in the mail today. and a package. thanks very much. in the box from home was the book 'through painted deserts' as requested. i've got it in my hands now and am reading it again after a year of last putting it down. part of the introduction says

"everybody has to change, or they expire. everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons.''

and also

''i didn't know, when i was living it, that it was about leaving home.. thanks for letting me go.''


i'm not sure which one that all this is meant to lead to. yet.