Not that old canoli again

It's too hot to sleep and Daisy dog doesn't want to come in yet. As is the custom the front door is open and the cool breeze keeps the downstairs very very pleasant. Unfortunately I sleep upstairs and it doesn't cool off fast enough to be of much use. Daisy faces a dilemma tonight; it's dark, it's a quiet dead end street and the mini-forest below the house provides just enough doggie sensory impute to keep her on the grass in front of the house. Too bad the occasional firework is discharged which Daisy doesn't care much for. So she's in and out every half hour and becoming a bit of a pest in the process.

I made the mistake of going to Althouse's blog and read about her day. I got envious and then a bit sad. I can remember all too well those idle days I spent in Madison. I didn't have a car the entire time I was in Madison and I walked extensively. There wasn't a part of town I didn't walk to either alone or with my wife. It's coming back very clearly; taking off from Spring Street down to the Arboreum entrance, through the arboreum, over to the high school track to run laps. Or a walk up to the capitol square for an amateur bike race or the farmer's market (the early version). I forget the name of the mall, but for shopping we would march to East town which was about 7 miles away. In fact we also went to the West end mall even more often. Shop and load the groceries into backpacks and do a quick pit stop at Rennebaums for a cherry coke and home. I suppose most college students did that sort of thing, especially if you didn't have a car, but we did that for years. Odd when I look back.

The summers were the best. At times it felt we had the whole city to ourselves, with all the time in the world to enjoy it. We use to keep tabs on our expenses and I'm astounded at how cheaply we lived. I never noticed as I was doing pretty much as I wanted (probably the best time to experience hedonism). There were people to visit and a never ending variety of new things to taste.

One summer I took my old Schwinn 10 speed up to Sun Prairie and back and discovered the corn fest. Back then it was a simple affair with a conveyor belt loaded with just picked and steamed corn. To have corn on the cob, tubs of Wisconsin butter and paper cups of soda after a long hot ride, was simply heaven. Later we geared up to fancy French race bikes with sew-up tires and traveled much further.

I imagine this memory stuff is bubbling up because of the job interview I had last Friday. I'm under consideration for a plant engineering job for a big manufacturer down in Portland. It's a job where I would be a one man show and frankly I'm not sure I'm interested in being that responsible. Living in Madison was in a way just the opposite. I was responsible for very little and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I also know that I have the tendency to go to the other extreme at times. I'm afraid it wouldn't be long before I was on call 24/7 and tethered to a cell phone. So I'm worried - life style concerns I suppose. It doesn't help that I had a wonderful 3 years in Portland. Three years of new adventures that I was especially open to. I don't think I could come close to that this time around. I call it the "Canoli effect". Before Portland I was almost off the grid in remote Idaho, then I was thrust into Portland with a bicycle, backpack and $200. Within a week I had a job, friends and new girlfriend. qand everything was new (at least to me). I lived above the best foreign movie house in Portland and only 5 blocks from my job. And on break two of the women after introducing me to "French roast" coffee took me to the local Italian deli for a canoli. It was a very heady time indeed. Today I'm set in my ways and probably will find a pattern in a week. A dull pattern no doubt. Last night Patricia surprised me with a call from Sedona and I reminded her of the year of Mt St Helens and my first canoli. She said she felt very old.