Huntington

According to the Farcebook, I wrote on this day in 2009, "I am home again for the first time in Huntington, West Virginia."

There's a place on this blog where I wrote about this house, & some of the things that happened while we lived in Huntington.  I didn't have a digital camera in 2009 & didn't take many pictures, so I didn't take a picture when we arrived.  Which we apparently did on July 2, 2009.  We drove our Toyota Corolla (pictured above) & a minivan.  If I'm not remembering incorrectly, it took two weeks for our things to arrive from the movers.  My books & music were more well-traveled at that point in time than I was.

This edifice was the first place we arrived at in Huntington.  I believe we took the dogs for a walk as soon as we rested some.  We might have met some neighbors.  It wasn't at all hot - I looked & saw that the high that day was 69 degrees.  In Austin, which we had just left two days before, it was 101 degrees.  & it wasn't as if we had left a different region - it was kind of like we had moved a little into the past.

My wife knew she wouldn't like it there so I decided to do my best to make it as nice as possible.  I began to walk the dogs regularly with her - that was not something I did in Austin.  I eventually started cooking for her, too, since she didn't much like the eating out choices we had in Huntington.  I couldn't fix her work, though, & that was a big part of her life.  I was left at home to take care of the animals, which was quite a happy thing for me: I got to spend all my time with them & I loved them so.  Only two of the animals we took to West Virginia made it to Oregon with us.  The dear cat we adopted in Huntington did make it here, but we lost her last year.  But I think all of them - well, maybe not my cat Beatrice, who hated traveling - but the rest of them would have loved it here.

Thirteen years ago seems to me to be so recent but also so far away.  There were times I regret not trying harder to make a life in Huntington.  But I think I knew my wife would never like it there.  & I couldn't convince her otherwise.

There's a part of me that thinks I was a little excited that day, though.  It was nice to be somewhere new.  I like that feeling.  I've got to feel it three more times since then!