I have secretly wanted to write a blog for a while now, but every time the thought of actually writing down the things I hear and see each day in Ruralburbia has stopped me in my tracks and suddenly the looming wall of writers block is well, blocking me. But as things usually happen in my life, the universe has decided to force my hand, and here I am blogging finally. But more on that later....
I like to call the little town meets suburban enclave where we live Ruralburbia. It is such an unusual mix of rural life and suburban sprawl, that you really have to see it to believe it. Picture this. Our very suburban style ranch sits on a two acre lot that has a small stream winding through one corner and the usual mix of shrubby bits, apple trees and the like. In the interest of creating wildlife habitat and not spending 3+ hours a week on the Ruralburbia Nascar track that is our backyard, we have decided to let the back acre and a half or so grow wild. So now we just call it The Meadow. Really, the groundhogs couldn't be happier and since neither Chris or I have to mow it, we are happy too.
Behind us is a 10 acre sheep farm and down the road people are growing hay for those sheep. My neighbor across the street plows and cultivates the same 5 acres next to his house with rye about 4 times a year, just because he is 85 years old and likes to pass the time driving his Gravely tractor. Oh, and he only has one eye, so it can be kind of entertaining to watch the tractoring from my living room across the street. Now you know how I pass the time without cable! Within a couple of miles of our house there are numerous horse farms and apiaries (my beeyard was the most recent addition this spring!) and folks growing the Ohio flip-flop crops of corn and soybeans. But here's the thing, in the same general couple of mile radius, fields are also sprouting condo developments, Super Walmarts, strip malls (seriously, those developments pop up faster than garlic mustard plants in the national park) and the like. Never mind the fact that there are perfectly good, gently-used strip malls that are empty directly across the street. The same failed businesses that didn't last there will have a go at the new place, sure they will. Keeping in mind the fact that the only businesses that seem to have any staying power are Diva Nails, Planned Parenthood and the ubiquitous Verizon store. Somebody has to keep all those 20-somethings employed and off the street, I guess.
So sometimes when these two worlds collide, funny things happen and for the last 8 years I have been lucky enough to be around when they do. The idea of starting a blog mostly stems from the notion of trying to remember and recapture these collisions, because living where we do has really been so entertaining and such a unusual blend of the sublime and ridiculous. Kind of like a Puggle or Labradoodle.
Remember earlier when I mentioned my inexplicable writer's block/procrastination episodes? You might be thinking Amy, so you have a blog now, what happened to make you get all Ronald Reagan on that Berlin Wall of self-imposed creative oppression? Well, a little over a month ago, Chris Skyped me a job description that came up on an automated Monster job search board he subscribes to. It was for a senior engineer position for an aerospace company that designs components for...wait for it...the International Space Station. Oh, and it's in Seattle, WA. Hold up, what, seriously?! Needless to say the job desc was like reading his resume with his name redacted, they literally needed someone who can do exactly what he does, making things that will get shot into space, and still work when they get there. I will pause for a moment to let the awesomeness of that sink in for all my fellow geeks.... Ok, so what this company didn't know yet was that their perfect hire was 2500 miles away, looking to make a hop into aerospace engineering, because it is his dream career move. And the fact that the company is in the Pacific Northwest, where we have been thinking about moving for some time, doesn't hurt either. CB asked me what I thought, and said that he thought he'll send his resume “because it is too perfect an opportunity to pass up”. I agreed and we both thought what the hey, we'll just see what happens. Probably nothing, but you never know. Indeed.
Well, as many of you know by now, what happened was that within 2 weeks of that Skype convo, the company had flown CB out for a whirlwind weekend and job interview and by the time he got home on Tuesday, had made him an offer we couldn't refuse (cue Godfather theme). So now we are moving and my time in Ruralburbia is limited, and now suddenly the blog I have wanted to start will soon be as obsolete as last year's (insert trendy Apple product here!) and so I better get to it. And here it is.
