|
it took me years Instead of rain this morning fog surrounded me on the drive home from work and I kept thinking how strange this winter has been with its unseasonably warm temperatures. Suddenly everything seems clammy to me and I don't like it. I suppose that it is better than shivering on the way to and from work, but it is certainly a false spring that I know won't last. Lately I've been feeling old, but I think that might be due to the fact that I haven't slept very well for about a week. In fact for the past two days, I woken up with an aching chest and stiff back, but I have no idea why. Then again I haven't done much in the way of exercise in weeks. Once the temperature started to fall and the holidays rolled around, I stopped doing any real kind of physical activity and that needs to change. What I should do is get myself back out on my bike while the weather is still warm. Even though I am still in the vague planning stages of my Europe trip, I am very much into it. To be honest it really is my primary focus for the year and I want to get as much as possible out of it. In some ways it is something that I have wanted to do for years, but so many other things happened to me in the past decade that kept me from going. In that respect I do envy my brother, because he is going at such a young age compared to me. For so long Europe has been this strange place talked about in history books and literature, but later this year I'll be able to meld what I have read in books with reality. Now I realize that Europe will not be the same as the Hemingway version in Paris and Spain, but it does give me a starting point. Nor do I expect to see Europe still crawling from the wreckage of the world wars. I just need to experience something that is not a part of my daily world. Europe is the old country where the plagues killed people century after century. Europe is where the Renaissance began and gave the world some of its finest art. Soon I'll finally be able to see some of the things that I have read about for years. I'll be able to see the Sistine Chapel with my own eyes. I'll get to see the Roman and Greek ruins. History will be everywhere. I know that all of this must make me sound as though I were twelve, but I need something big like this to shake up my life a little. I need to leave everything that I know behind just for a little while. It bothers me that by this time last year, I had already been on a trip and back. Now I have to wait until July before I'll be able to go anywhere, because I just don't have enough vacation time to spare for two trips this year. I know that I'll have a good time in Europe, but I am sure that having a limited amount of time off for the second half of the year will make it seem even longer than usual.
|