Whenever I want to be reminded of the gulf between rural Ozarkansas and the grueling urban-suburban life I used to live, all I have to do is drive to Harrison or Mountain Home. That’s where I’ll find stop lights, strip malls, big boxes and traffic.
There, the rare snarl is still quite manageable. It’s not a big deal for those of us who’ve fought Interstate madness every day.
Ozarkansas drivers are notoriously courteous, too, overall. So even when traffic is relatively congested, there’s no cause for anxiety.
Territory between those small cities, to the newcomer, can feel almost uninhabited. The main east-west route, US 62/US 412, is wide-open and speedy. It’s the damnedest thing.
And then there are the backroads.
The seven-mile trip from The Mountain to Yellville takes 15 minutes. No matter the time or the day, until I reach Arkansas Route 14, I might see one or two other vehicles in almost six miles.
Often I see none at all.
Taken together, that illustrates what may be the biggest practical benefit of living here — there’s just no traffic.
I’d be a fool to trade that for the chaos I left behind three years ago. I’m smarter than that. I’m saner than that. Not gonna happen.
A morning tick-tock…
2:45am CDT — Smudge began to paw at me, asking to go outside. I declined her request, rolled over, and went back to sleep.
5:30am CDT — I woke up on my own, an hour later than usual. Temp in the camper was a brisk 60°F, so I turned on a space heater. I took both dogs out, made a pot of coffee, and slumped into my chair.
6:00am CDT — A former colleague messaged, not specifically to check on me, but to talk gardening and foraging in Ozarkansas. A pleasant and welcome conversation.
7:00am CDT — Miss Smudge made me laugh. Her antics and her personality are priceless. The elderly Scout, as usual, was not impressed.
7:15am CDT — I exchanged text messages with a close friend. This person has become invested in my life, genuinely interested in and engaged with me. Every day now begins that way. It’s the best.
7:30am CDT — The happy Heeler asked to go out again. Off-leash, she first wandered and then sprinted down onto the lower level, across the road, and into the woods on the other side. Whatever she was chasing, she didn’t catch it.
8:00am CDT — My neighbor arrived to continue work on the cabin.
8:10am CDT — Lacking a crucial fitting, unable to proceed without it, we made another trip to the hardware.
9:05am CDT — I shut off water at the well. Work resumed.
10:45am CDT — I turned the water back on. We checked the work and found one leak, an un-crimped ring. After correcting that, everything proved tight and dry.
11:15am CDT — Supply side is finished. Drains go in tomorrow. Fixtures are next, over time. My neighbor left for the day, earlier than he had Monday or Tuesday. It’s his birthday.
11:55am CDT — I opened an e-mail produced by the “Contact” form on Ubi Libertas Blog. The message came from a woman I know in a peripheral, two-degrees-of-separation sort of way. She shared her informed observations of my current situation like no one else has, and she let me know that she’s got my back. That e-mail rocked me.
I put something together this morning. Stay with me here.
The people who’ve reached out to me the last few weeks come from all over, representing virtually every facet and stage of my life. Some are new friends. Some go back over 60 years.
It wasn’t until today, however, that I noticed a significant share of support tracing to a four-year span and a particular job I held — the firearms retailer where I worked near Columbus, Ohio, from 2015 to 2019.
To anyone who watched the crew behind that gun counter, especially the first couple of years, it became immediately clear that we were a tight team. We were brothers (with a sister or two in the mix). We battled together every day, and we’d do anything for each other.
So maybe it’s not surprising that those people, on hearing of my predicament, have been in touch. But it goes beyond the guys at the gun counter — colleagues from other departments at the store, as well as corporate staff and even customers, women as well as men, have checked on me, commiserated with me, distracted me, cheered me and cheer for me.
You know who you are. You’re a treasure. I’ll never forget the gift that you’re giving me.
The view from the front door of my cabin around 8pm last night. I snapped the shot during a text-messaging session with a dear friend.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable