Hop, Skip, and a Jump

I have a routine in the evenings these days. I come upstairs and sew a bit before bedtime. I have a project that I was about to work on when I realized that I didn't have something I needed for it. It was nothing big, just a bit of fabric for backing. It would have to wait until tomorrow.

Although I live a mere 3 miles from Austin's city limits I have to drive another 10 miles before I reach a big box store or grocery store. Yes, Austin is sprawling and I live on the outer edge of it's sprawl.

So, the fabric will have to wait until I go back 'into town' .

In the 5 years that I have lived in Austin these miles worked out to be both an advantage and  DIS advantage for me.

The DIS advantage being lack of convenience. It takes me 25 minutes to get to the grocery store. The only reason it doesn't take me longer than that is that I travel the farm roads as much as possible. Luckily most every area of Austin I need to get to is taken via a back road..hence, less traffic, therefore more speed.

Ironically, over the years I have fallen in love with the back roads.  When I'm by my lonesome I find it to be almost meditative to drive along those long, winding, hilly roads listening to the hum of my radio lost in my thoughts. Back roads have spoiled me. Congested traffic and horns blowing make me very nervous and on edge now.

Here is a short video of  I took one morning on the way to the grocery store. I can't really remember what possessed me to pull out my phone and video but if memory serves me my original intention was to video a bald eagle that was standing in a field on the side of the road that flew off before I got a pic of him.

Yes, at times I do get annoyed at having to drive 13-20 miles to my destination, depending on what area of Austin I am venturing to, but there are advantages that outweigh the annoyances.

When I sit out on my deck at night and I can see most every star, meteor, and constellation in the big Texas sky, watch the bats dip down for a drink out of the pool water, hear the coyotes howling and the  frogs croaking..and it is OH SO QUITE, it makes the time consuming 30 minute drive a drop in the bucket.

I have always called myself a city girl and there are many aspects of  urban living that I love, but the older I get I find that I really enjoy the peace and quite of rural living.

If such a thing exists I would prefer to have country living with city conveniences.