It’s True: You Really Can’t Go Home

I just returned from a mostly wonderful, kind of weird one week vacation where I visited multiple friends and family across two states, competed in my first “metric century” bike ride (67 miles) along Oregon’s Rogue River, completed several home projects and dumped my personal Facebook Page…that’s a lot for a 55 year old to accomplish in 7 days. In a way, all my activities were tied together: I realized as I powered through some warm-up bike rides through Southern Orange County during the first part of my week off, my hometown of Dana Point had changed dramatically. My old haunts are gone now, replaced with expensive/modern/somewhat cold structures. People seem to be split into mask-wearers and pandemic deniers, and nobody seemed particularly happy…I couldn’t wait to get home to NorCal. I noticed that I would become sort of anxious when I would realize I hadn’t taken any pictures of who I was with and where I was visiting, realizing I wouldn’t have any good “social media posting content.” THEN I would realize that if I posted pics of me visiting with a particular group, ANOTHER group I DIDN’T visit with would get upset when they saw the post…this (along with several other factors) made dumping my Facebook page easy. Doing the Oregon ride with a childhood friend, and just my awesome wife Meg as my pit crew chief made me recognize what’s important: my current home, my actual flesh-and-blood friends, and the occasional chance to breathe in fresh air! I wonder what revelations I’ll have during my next week off? We’ll see Thanksgiving Week 🙂

John Young