{"id":476,"date":"2009-08-20T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-20T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/?p=476"},"modified":"2009-08-20T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-20T08:00:00","slug":"in-retrospect-august-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/?p=476","title":{"rendered":"In Retrospect: August 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re going to be doing an experiment in looking at what we were doing in previous times, here and at Hobbits<\/a>. We’ve just gone through a major overhaul of how we organize pictures, up on Flickr<\/a>, to put things into sets according to the day they were taken. It’s a different way of looking at the world, that’s for sure!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Baby<\/a><\/td>\n\"Baby<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Chana<\/a><\/td>\n\"Pineapple<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Apparently August 20 was a boring day last year: we didn’t take a single picture! We did, though, in 2007, and way back in 1999. Shown here are some horrible end-of-pantry experiments in cooking: a cornbread using chana flour (which actually turned out fairly decently<\/a>) and a pineapple-upside-down cake … made with black currants, from polenta flour. Not a good flavor – and I could tell you that without even looking at the post! I was madly trying to wrap up this Baby Surprise Sweater, to give to my sister-in-law’s newborn. It turned out so large that my then-9-year-old sister-in-law could wear it. But it got done, and a hat to match!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"Last<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Upstairs<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"David's<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

We were also frantically trying to get the remodel of our condo finished, so that we could rent it out. In retrospect … well, let’s just say that we know a bit better about how to work with contractors, and know that if we ever get into a remodel situation again, we’ll just take a month’s vacation and come back to a finished job, rather than trying to live with all the chaos! The bathroom got done, though: 9 days before we left to come to Scotland. Shown here is my hat, after having been weather-treated with Scotch-Guard (which doesn’t exist over in Scotland, by the way). It turns out that the weather-proofing didn’t work so well: the hat is too small now, because it’s felt, and has gotten wet and shrunk. I have hopes of stretching it some day.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
\"1999<\/a><\/td>\n\"1999<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"1999<\/a><\/td>\n\"1999<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Apparently August 20 is a slim picture day, as the only other pictures we have, taken 8\/20, are these, taken at a Sonoma County Beach (probably Doran, near Bodega Bay), way back in 1999. We still have prints of these – dragged along with us, in frames even. Flying a kite, on a beach. That used to be the shape of our weekends. We’d get into our little 2-door Toyota, and just drive and drive, seeing the coast of California, stopping for salt-water taffy, looking at all the places we thought we might be able to live “some day.”<\/p>\n

It’s strange, the connection between these pictures. We used to drive to Benicia, to look at the neighborhoods, and say that we’d live there<\/i> “some day.” We eventually managed it, only to move on, to let the house go, and to live a third of the way around the world. What ties these pictures together is the conflicting desires of our lives. To travel, yet to have a stable, presentable home, close to family and friends. To truly get to know the world, yet to have a place which fits us so well as we had before we left.<\/p>\n

It’s strange, to look back upon our lives, and to wonder: where do we look next?<\/p>\n


\n\"Creative
\n<\/a>
\n
This work is licensed under a
\nCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re going to be doing an experiment in looking at what we were doing in previous times, here and at Hobbits. We’ve just gone through a major overhaul of how we organize pictures, up on Flickr, to put things into sets according to the day they were taken. It’s a different way of looking at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-retrospect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbitsabroad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}