How far is civilization?

That is the question my cousin asked me this past weekend..... "Just how far is it to some sort of civilization?"

The daughter of one of my cousins was up in Dallas last week on business, and she drove here to visit us before she flew back to NY.  For two nights and three days, my city-girl cousin watched the goats across the road, took a selfie with a friend's horse, and watched the kids down the road riding in a wagon attached to their dad's tractor.

We walked around the streets in town and the fact that our downtown square looks very much like Mayberry did not escape her city eyes.  She couldn't get over the fact that so many shop-keepers told us to 'Have a blest day!' as we left the stores.  She said in NY, all they say is "Next!!!"  (I guess I had forgotten that.)

C is getting married this coming December, and she is looking to move out of NY, to somewhere less crowded and less expensive. Not as rural as where we are, but not as city-ish as where she is living now. She said she wants a better quality of life, and to feel that she is not working to just live and pay bills. The sight of the neighbor's kids playing out in their yard and riding along in the wagon with the tractor just floored C to the point where it made her sad to think that kids can't do that up on Long Island.  Kids up there have play-dates, she said. Sounds way too structured, I said.

I hope that C can convince her mother to get on a plane for the next visit.... her mom has never left NY... and I have been trying to get her down here for years now.  Her mom, my cousin F, would love it here. Except for the coyotes. And the snakes. And the lack of world news being broadcast 24/7.  C told me that we are in our own little world up here in these the hills.

Indeed we are. And most of the time, that's just fine.