(written the morning of the 1st)
It was an early morning yesterday–it being about a 30-minute drive from where we were to the Kansas City temple, we needing to be there at the temple by about 7:30 or 7:35 or something like that.
So I stumbled out of bed, slept walked through buying gas, and headed south.
Gratefully, we got to the temple without a hitch, and I took some pictures of the Temple in the dawn light before settling in to work for JustAnswer for the day.
I worked and worked and worked while my mom was in the temple, and then we ate breakfast when she got back.
We were supposed to leave as soon as we finished breakfast, but I had a customer who needed hand holding perhaps more so than any customer I’ve ever had.
I ended up finally giving up waiting to finish the call for us to leave and just heading out because he wanted me to sit with him through every single step of a registration process, and when he struggled with that, he wanted me to sit with him through every single step of an account creation process–both for a different company than ours.
I was basically just tech support instead of a mechanic.
But he finally got done what he needed to get done, and we were already back on our way south to Arkansas.
I did just answer work all the way until we got there, taking back roads for the last hour plus–quite appropriate, as that had been our preferred traveling approach to that point for much of the trip.
I stopped taking new questions maybe 20 or 30 minutes before getting to my mom’s house, so I wouldn’t have much to deal with in terms of follow-up when we got there.
It was hard to be back.
Not only do I have the pile to deal with that I left when we started our trip, I just… don’t want to be back.
Emotionally, I’ve already moved on. If I didn’t have all my stuff to deal with, I would already be heading right back out–destination TBD.
Gratefully, I did remember to take some videos and pictures of the van and it’s loaded contents before we started unloading too much.
It was hard to unload stuff. There was definitely a strong sense of loss.
Clearly the ending of an era, albeit a short one.
😞
I was pretty melancholic.
My mom made us one last lunch from our cooler contents, and we talked for a little bit, and Thomas came home, and we all talked for a little bit, and my mom and I watched some YouTube videos on my phone as we both avoided life a little bit already.
🙃
Today being Halloween is also the 9th anniversary of my step dad’s passing, so as both an end cap to our trip and a memorial to my stepdad, we went out to Wendy’s one last time, biggie bags and never-ending gazillion-flavor drink machine
After that, we went to the Walmart neighborhood market across the street, so I could buy some grocery bags for Little John, and so my mom could buy groceries for the coming days.
It’s hard to be back. I would say home, but I don’t really have one these days.
My heart has pretty much let go of Arkansas completely, and it’s time to go.
Just driving down from Missouri to Arkansas was different, as the temperature was warm enough to need the AC on I think because of the humidity, but the difference was, unlike other places that we’ve traveled, unless I’m just misremembering, well the front of me is cool, my back is sweating against the seat.
Don’t think that happened anywhere in the west.
Though I could be wrong, I attributed it to the midwest/south humidity.
Well folks, we’re back. Happy Halloween. 😊
Back to the grind.
Love and hugs.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 