Deflection

I have returned to Cedar Rapids for a short visit, and it has been a good stop for me. With the tensions that I am facing in Whitewater, it was nice to get back to visiting with friends, a familiar area, and the wide open spaces. It feels like home.

Visiting with friends and talking in-depth on many topics was meaningful to me. With a couple of my friends, we sat for over an hour talking about the past, our families, people, human behavior, dementia, events, highways, politics, and the future. We were making a bond between us for life. Everyone happy was that I stopped in to see them. They want me to keep writing and sending them my essays. For a couple of my friend, they stopped getting my emails in February 2023, and they wanted to make sure that I put their name back on my distribution list, and I found out how meaningful these essays are to those that are receiving them.

The discussions that were the most important to me was about human behavior and dementia, regarding my mom’s dementia. It is not so much that they understand these topics, but it is important to have friend that I can talk to about these topics, since they help me build my confidence.

After being out of Whitewater for 38 years, I am not around the people that I was then working on houses with my dad, since working did put me in touch with many people there. It also feels like there are a lot of ghost there. Places were I use to meet people have changed. Many of the people that were my parents age have past away. It is hard to get a network established back in Whitewater, especial when I was living with mom, when her care takes so much time.

My discussion here took my mind off of what is going on in Whitewater. It is not just focusing on the time I spent here but it is what is going on here, now and in to future. When I stopped into the district office, we talked about projects that I had developed, projects under construction, how they are using the information that I had left for them, and the staff that I worked with for so many years. It was not looking at the past but also was looking into the future.

I noticed that a few of the projects that I help developed are either complete or under construction. It is nice to get out here and set the cruise control and just drive down the highway. As I have drove though other states and provinces, they do not have the pavement performance that Iowa has on their highways. It all comes down to the drainable base under the pavement and longitudinal sub drains. On other highways, the water under the pavement is cracking the pavement and the surface is not smooth. It is difficult to see the new pavement going down without drainage knowing that they will only get fifty percent live out of the pavement, and it is a real waste of funds. If I am looking at their pavement correctly, instead of milling and filling the pavement, they are closing the highway and just replacing the pavement. So, as I drove down US 151 on Wednesday, it was interesting to drive on pavement that is twenty years in good condition with none of our maintenance crews working on the highway, since there was nothing to work on at this time.

It is great recognizing familiar places, like I am camped at the Morgan Creek County Park, where I often walked on the trails when I lived here. Driving down the road for long period of time with the cruise control on, seeing for miles, and, as I wrote above, drive on good highways. I do not feel boxed in out here.

Now I am ready to travel back to Wisconsin. There are parts that I am not looking forward to, and that is part of life. But I am working on a few things that seem to be interesting. The Whitewater American Legion Building was sold a few years ago, and I am trying to find good investments for the funds. A few of my friends asked me if I was going to move back to Iowa, and this trip has made me think about it, but I have had my lake front lots in north central Wisconsin to build on next year, and I feel that I will truly enjoy life in that location. I know: it is the people that make a difference, but I have close friends up there, too. There is no questions about it; I needed this trip back to Iowa.