This is Deputy Digby Pancake. Welcome to Poinsett, South Carolina! We will begin our coverage on our new abode tomorrow!
Home sweet home. If it has pancakes. Or home sweet home can be anywhere we park this Big Blue Treat Wagon. And if it has been able to drive there in order to park, well, then it’s a very good day.
Since we were in that Jacksonville, Florida for quite a few months, we got kind of used to being parked. Girl Person says that people call that “nesting”. Well, I am certainly not a bird and I don’t eat like a bird and I don’t have a bird brain. Although, I wouldn’t complain if I did because I actually think that they are pretty smart.
But that nesting thing kind of got us in trouble. Not kinda. It did. We got used to where to buy our groceries, and not needing directions and letting that Depression Monster get us again. When we started back on the road, we realized how much we enjoyed moving around. But even things that you enjoy sometimes are hard. Like the grocery thing.
You probably are used to your own grocery store. You know where things are, how much they are and who works there. But imagine if you were somewhere new every week and you had to go to a new store every week. Maybe they had your favorite maple syrup, and maybe they didn’t. Sometimes, you may laugh about it, but then sometimes, you really want your maple syrup and there is nothing you can do.
Or maybe, just maybe, you like a certain campground, but perhaps not the one that gave you a heaping mess of poison ivy. And you have to leave, but you don’t want to. The thing is, maybe there is another campground that you may like just as much. But you don’t know it yet. And that’s why I like our temporary homes.
It’s easy to get used to things being the way they are and forget that outside of our own comfort zones, they are not the same. Different radio stations, TV stations, persons, roads, stores….the list goes on and on. Girl Person says that it’s easy to rely on conveniences. But are we self reliant enough that if those conveniences went away that we would survive?
The bottom line on my grilled pancakes is that really all of us have a temporary home, even if we have been there all our lives. Things change. People come in and come out of our lives whether by choice or not. We have really good times, and not good times. But never get so used to how things are that we don’t remember they can change over night.
I have heard that the more money you have, the more you spend. But when you travel like us, you think about every little thing. You don’t know the next time you will be able to go grocery shopping, or how far away the store will be. So you don’t waste as much. If you don’t have full hookups to wash dishes inside for a week, you wash them outside just in case. If you have hot water in a campground shower, you savor it, but more than likely it is not going to last long. And all of this may seem like a hassle. But it certainly makes you appreciate what you took for granted all of your life.
And you hopefully will never forget them, even if your circumstances change.
Our circumstances change us, mold us, shape us. Let it be in a good way. We all have to appreciate our temporary homes that are now.
Won’t you join us in South Carolina this week? We have a lot to show you. Now. About that maple syrup…
-Deputy Digby Pancake
You know, Digby, if it’s any consolation, I find that just about the time I’ve learned where everything is in the big superstore supermarkets, they start rearranging the store. They learned that in grad school. If your customers learn the store, then they only get the things on their list. If they can’t find what’s on the list because it’s been moved, they see other products they might buy on impulse. So even if you never move around, the store does. I have to make a list and stick to it. In fact, by sticking to my list, I’m saving about $50 a week. So, you just make sure GP has maple syrup on her list, and that whatever is on the list, she sticks to it. Eggies, flour, maple syrup… stuff for pancakes!!! And, of course, detergent for the laundry and bath soap for the prison shower. And I know she wants to find a produce market or weekly farmers market for fresh veggies. Gotta get the lay of the land every time you move to a new place. But that’s part of the fun of it, isn’t it?