Country Mice to City Mice

Several years ago, Aleene and I thought about retirement and envisioned a place in a rural setting...much like where we both grew up; along a river (Neshannock or Slippery Rock) perhaps; or even in the woods (i.e. Cook's Forest, Cowan's Gap, Caledonia State Parks in PA.) We even looked around a little bit and I remember making one phone call to a realtor in New Castle (a former classmate) and asked him to keep his eyes open (that was the last time I talked to him) for property to buy in Lawrence County, PA. At the time Nancy (my brother Jim's wife) remarked that while we were planning on being country mice, she would be forever a city mouse (they live in the 'burbs of Pittsburgh;) strange observation, I thought at the time. The point is, we were serious about living in the country. What happened, of course, is that we got closer and closer to the city. First, from Fennville, then to Songbird, then to a condo...now to an "inner" city.

We were walking...get that, walking...back from the library this afternoon, having signed up for library cards and I thought to myself: we have become city mice. We walk for coffee, I walk to the bike shop, I walk to get my hair cut, we walk for cuisine (not fast food, but ethnic cuisine), we walk to Amy & Bren's, we walk to the pet shop, I will walk home tomorrow after leaving the Jeep to get serviced, and now we can walk to the library with our new bar-coded cards.

As we perused the library, I envisioned myself sitting at the table near the newspapers and scanning the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Christian Science Moniter, checking out the columnists...for free...that I now have to pay for to read on line. I envisioned all this and relished the thought.

"Kristy Motz would be proud of us," I remaked to Aleene.
"Donnalu would be proud of me," Aleene replied.
And I thought to myself...Nancy Lutz would be proud of us both... for we are now city mice.