Since I've been here in Maryland, I've been going to bed before midnight and getting up early in the morning, generally before anyone else gets up around here. I kind of like it, but know that I'll revert to old patterns (if my eclectic sleep and waking times can even be called a pattern) once I get home again, which should be sometime Sunday, by the way.
We're headed back home tomorrow, although we'll get into Maine just after midnight tomorrow, technically Sunday, we'll probably get a room in Portland rather than driving home that late. My wife is old so we don't like driving at night.
The youngest turned 16 the day we got there. Her brother is 19. We're back in Maine but spending the night in Portland. We have the same room we had the day before we left.
We're back home, by the way. We've been home for several hours, but I've mostly been busy with the kitties. A friend was kind enough to have snowblowed our sidewalk and driveway for us because Millinocket (unlike Maryland) had a couple of snowstorms while we were gone.
I want to take a trip to see our family, but in this day and time with all the carjackings, auto muggings going on I ask Jake what we could put in exhaust to make the van smoke and look even more decrepit than it already does. He said no way! I figured 2 old people traveling with out of state tags wouldn't be a wise idea unless we looked like it wouldn't be worth the effort. He also didn't go for the bondo trick either. I was so afraid out last trip the looks we got filling up with gas was so threatening we left, went to another less threatening station. Georgia is full of thugs and gangs now, and we have to travel to the top of the state near Tenn.
While there is surely a lot to be desired in the world today, as far as the state of society is concerned, I think we sometimes make too much of it. My wife and I travel quite a lot, mostly along the East Coast between Maine and Virginia, and sometimes further south, with an occasional venture to Michigan, and, so far, we haven't had any dangerous experiences. Someone cloned the data on our iPhones in NYC one time, probably during a long delay on the Washington Bridge, but we haven't encountered any violence, and this has included walking around Washington D.C., sometimes even after dark. While I wouldn't just wander aimlessly, in a car or on foot, in Boston, Washington, DC, or Baltimore, things aren't as dangerous as we sometimes think they are, at least not on a personal basis.
We will soon be making our (mostly) annual trip to Arlington, although we'll be leaving earlier than we usually do. I don't think we'll stay as long, given that the grandkids aren't kids anymore, and visiting museums in Washington, D.C., isn't nearly as pleasant as it once was. Since we still have a lot of miles on our leased car, we'll be driving rather than via Amtrak this time. I think we'll be leaving on the 30th. More later.
I'm only 100 miles away and keep threatening to take a short vacation up there. I miss the museums and some of my favorite eateries (to the extent they're still around.) It's just so damned crowded and since I've lived in the country, my tolerance for traffic ain't what it used to be.