On being home

Finally I'm home, or the closest thing there is for me, and that's at Mom and Dad's in Tucson, the very house that I grew up in. No matter how far I wander, this will always be home and it will always be the place that I miss with the people I love.

View of the Catalina mountains from our back yard. Yes, that's snow on them.

But I return to a world in which I feel like more of an oddball than I think I am.

• I don't own a cellphone.
• I don't know how to send a text message.
• The idea of gas costing more than $2 a gallon is simply shocking.
• I keep turning on the windshield wipers when I want to signal a turn (last place I drove was Australia, where the controls are opposite).
• I've never done a Sudoku and I don't know how to pronounce it.
• My Dad had to explain to me what the Michael Richards outburst was all about.
• I thought my sister was kidding when she said there was another Rocky movie out.

What does this mean? Not much really, just that I'm a communications neanderthal, it's been a while since I've driven here, and I'm culturally behind on a few things. I don't think it takes too long to slide back into reality as I used to know it, but sometimes, the more I see of everyday life here, the less I'm inclined to rejoin the masses. Is it just me or is it really, really annoying to have to listen to someone else's cellphone conversation at the checkout line?

But it's still home and seeing your family again after being away for 11 months is priceless. Really I'm more like your typical American 40-something adult than you might think...afterall, I'm back living with Mom and Dad!

View from the driveway - last night's sunset over the Tucson mountains.