I'm bringing this back up because it's now been 3 months since I've lived in this little burg, and I still can't adjust.

Today my officemate was off, so I had to run the cops and fire beat. Here are the 3 biggest calls that came into the sheriff over the weekend:

1. Heifer blocking road.
2. Hay bales on fire underneath power lines.
3. Car-deer interaction, deer lost but was still alive when sheriff got there. Driver wanted to know if he could keep the deer.

Can't say I've ever lived somewhere people ate roadkill....

Tonight, I went to a volunteer appreciation dinner for an organization that promotes the historic downtown. I thought it would be a good way to meet people.

I walked in, and the director of the organization said hi (I've met him previously) and chatted for a bit. I introduced myself to the gentleman he'd been talking to. Dude I'd never seen before says, "Sure, I know you. I read your stuff. You live on the west hill, right?"

Uh ... yeah. I do. But I've never mentioned that publicly, and I've never seen the guy before.

I suppose, given that he owns the grocery store and the hardware store, there are worse people to be known by, but it really brought home the teensy-tinyness of the place.

I pay next to nothing for my apartment, and it's really convenient to all the places I need to be, but 3 cars in a line is a traffic jam here, so it hardly matters. My place is really tiny, and I just feel so ... confined. By everything, everywhere, here. And I'm so lonely and homesick I can hardly stand it. I miss my friends. I miss my multicultural, diverse, welcoming parish (the churches of my faith tradition that I've been to here have been really unfriendly). I miss buildings taller than 3 stories. I can't adjust to the pace of my job, which is significantly slower than what I'm used to, creating lots and lots of boredom. I just want to go home.

Quick, somebody tell me something positive about all this!

CB