City vs. Country

Moving from a country home to a city home takes some adjustment. I’ve lived in the country at the end of a road for almost 40 years. The nearest town’s population is less than 90,000. Now I’m in Tucson, where the metropolitan population is 981,000.

Getting around in Tucson is far more complicated and, if I may say so, nerve racking. I can successfully navigate within a tiny rectangle of streets. Beyond that, I’m lost. Lucky for me that most everything I need can be obtained in that small area.

Another adjustment for this country mouse is streetlights. I’m not used to them. In the country the night is dark. Here, the darkness is broken by beams of amber light coming from all directions. Only the brightest stars and the moon are visible.

In the country we occasionally hear an aircraft passing overhead. Tucson is home not only to a municipal airport, but also to an air force base where fighter jets are based. Last weekend an air show kept our eardrums throbbing all day.

I’m not used to sirens either. Our house is in an older residential part of the city so there aren’t many sirens to disturb our sleep. Even so, we hear their wail often enough to remind me we’re not living in the woods.

Still, there’s much here to make me feel at home. There’s a sweet Airedale to keep me company during the week days. (She interacts with me about as much as Annie – which is to say hardly at all. It’s just nice to have a dog in the house.) I’ve started vegetable seeds in cups on the patio, just as I would back home and the first three, all cucumbers, have germinated. There’s the familiar aroma of loaves of baking bread wafting through the house.

Most important, I’m with family. We help each other out. We share cooking responsibilities. After the evening meal we sit and talk about the day’s activities, we remember other times we’ve been together, we tell stories of our lives, and we laugh. What could be more homey than that?

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer