Differences Between Here and There

There are several things I probably would not have seen or done and people I would never had met if I had stayed in Loudon.

1. Obviously at the top of the list would be Sue and the kids. Sue has a fault or two but she puts up with a lot more from me than I do from her. I honestly can not picture my life without her being in it. As for the kids, my pat answer when someone asks me how they are is "Perfect!" They're not of course, but to me they are so much better at this stage of their lives than I was at their age. I couldn't ask for better if I had walked into the kid's store and picked them off the shelf myself.
2. An earthquake, in fact several.
3. A hurricane, again several.
4. The green flash of light just as the last edge of the sun dips below the horizon.
5. The central coast of California from San Francisco to Morro Bay. I could not help but fall in love with it.
6. The northern lights.
7. A meteor shower made up of hundreds of meteors. So many that I cast a shadow.
8. Fighting a forest fire.
9. Niagara Falls.
10. The stretches of Route 66 before I-40 was complete.

With that being said though, there are other things I have missed by leaving, and where some of these may be trivial and small to some people, they aren't to me.

1. Having my kids go to the same schools I did and really know their cousins.
2. Having the kids grow up in a place out of the rat race and far from the maddening crowds.
3. Being there when friends and family needed something.
4. Not always having to choose between "going home" or "going to see the kids/grandkids". Heck, who knows, I may have actually had an honest to goodness vacation for once in my life.
5. Having family and friends from Loudon stop by my house. That's happened exactly three times in almost 38 years.
6. Watching the old bridge fall into the river.
7. Going to Redskin football games.
8. Ordering a hot dog and getting chili and slaw on it without asking.
9. Being someplace where folks wave when you drive by.
10. Being around people who talk like I do. :)