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| 1970s TV Guide ad artwork for Late Late Early Late Show Showing of Joan Crawford's Female on the Beach. One of the BEST summer campy movies of all time. |
Well, here it is towards the end of June, and in Cookie's book, we're on the downside summer. Yes, I know it just began, but Cookie loves that time of year when each day is a wee bit longer than the last. But now, each day is a wee bit shorter than the one before it, leading up to that dreaded month that Cookie can bearly function through: NOVEMBER.
Ugh.
And let's face it, in ten days or so, Summer merchandise will start going on sale in stores as the fall merchandise and "Back to School Sale" promotions kick into gear. And before you know it, the autumn leaves need to be raked.
But enough about my problems. Not nearly enough, but you get the idea.
As for Shaker Heights, it is at once divine, and on the other hand damning.
The divine is, it suits me rather well. There are no struggles here. The trash gets picked up, the recycling gets picked up, and stores are mostly handy. One bonus is that I never realized what a traffic light Hell Cleveland Heights, University Heights, and South Euclid are. Instead of an hour, the drive to get my allergy shots is 15 minutes from Shaker to Landerwood.
The downside of this is that if it weren't for the Husband, Cookie would be very lonely. It's hard being a man who is this old, moving someone a new place, and meeting people, and making new friends. Oh, you can make friends, but there are a lot of people who want to use you for what they can get out of you. I found that out the hard way.
The other hard thing is that so many of the people here are people I knew from grade school. They smile, they are pleasant, but I have always been neither fish nor foul to them. So I am still not one of them because I was never one of them in the first place.
Remember, Cookie was always a bit of an outlier. One foot in one world, and another foot someplace else.
So I went down to Columbus for a few days, to like my wounds, and be around people who like being around me. It was restorative.
So here we are. I am grateful for the experience, but I am still pining for home.
I'll get by. I always do.
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It seems as though you liked Columbus the best, but "going home" never works out the way you think it will. I still find Cleveland easy to get around and with plenty of nice people, although things like Covid and friends constantly moving away take their toll. Also, perhaps you have forgotten some of the shortcuts to getting around--I don't know exactly where you go, but driving down long lengths of Cedar or Mayfield would frustrate anyone. Before you moved back, many east side main streets (Shaker, South Woodland, Green, Fairmount, Richmond, etc.) were torn up all summer for sewer work, with attendant delays. There is still some work on roads like Warrensville Center, but the lion's share of the disruption is probably over.
ReplyDelete--Jim