Family Station Wagon.
With the exception of a limo, you couldn’t stretch the family car further than the station wagon. Growing and expanding, our family had several different cars back in the day. The greatest percentage of them were family station wagons.
The last, before the elder kids started moving away from home, was the Country Squire. Almost as snazzy as the family truckster in the Vacation movies.
Being one of the younger kids there was no doubt about where I’d get to sit.
The little oil painting I played with on the computer and am posting isn’t correct seating, but I think the gist of how comfortable a ride anywhere is well portrayed.
Close, Yet Far Apart.
It’s a saying that became all too familiar in this time of COVID 19; close, yet far apart. Sounds absolutely impossible. And in some ways, the situation of the world made it just so. A face on a screen is in no way as wonderful as a hug or handshake or one warm cheek against another.
I’ve had to take some time away from tasks I’d normally be doing to take time to heal from all the chaos that has surrounded us from the onset of this deadly virus. It has attacked us in so many ways. And yet has shown us vignettes of times more simpler.
When I walked the neighborhood with my daughter in our time of social distancing, I saw fathers playing with their children, where in times past there were only neighborhood kids gathering together. More people chose to read, rather than hear the disconcerting news on television.
I used much of my time reorganizing and cleaning out in my home. I have a workout space in my basement which previously only held stacks of half empty paint cans and piles of stuff that were placed there because I didn’t know what to do them. I made decisions.
I purged and restructured my studio space. (Which is really just an extra bedroom that has been overpacked with supplies for all the different projects I like to do.) Now each space has a little more purposeful organization. It’s still way too much stuff for the room. Baby steps. But I made decisions.
I decided the time had come to get back to work. Back to creating. My daughter hasn’t been able to go back to work yet, so there’s still the need to keep her engaged in life. But I’ve been glad to have her near to help me get through these rough times. It’s been hard. And I must say…
There have been days when I would have given anything to be squished in the back seat of the Country Squire with my brothers and sisters. Soon.