I decided to take a drive around town, on my way back from the grocery store today.
I had no particular motivation for doing so, other than the realization that I'm usually too *busy* and too *determined* to get from point A to point B without distractions to actually stop and observe what's around me.
Perhaps that sounds a little odd, considering that I'm often giving people advice the to stop and appreciate the moments they are in and I often do so myself, when I'm taking pictures of stuff.
In this case though, I was more concerned with visiting *places* then I was looking for birds and flowers to photograph.
Mostly I was simply taking the long way home.
You know you've lived in a place for a while when you start recognizing that significant landmarks have changed considerably since you first saw them.
## *Like the Phoenix...*
I drove by a house that burned down about 12 years ago, and afterwards they basically razed everything on the property including mowing down quite a few of the bushes and mid-sized trees. For a couple of years the land lay fallow and was simply a reminder that once upon a time there was something there.
As I drove by today, I saw that there has been a house there for a while already, and there are actually relatively mature bushes and landscaping around it. It no longer looks like it was *"recently burned down,"* it looks like it has been there for a long time.
I drove by our local golf course. It was one of the first places I remember seeing when I originally moved to town, and since I was a golfer long ago I thought I might take up the game again. Now the golf course is in danger of being turned into a dog park and pickleball courts because the game of golf is no longer very popular. Alas, I never got to take up golf again!
*A look down the 5th hole, as you drive into the golf course facilities*
For a moment, I wondered whether I might be driving by there — in another 10 years — and observing to whomever else was with me in the car that *"I remember that park when it used to be a golf course!"* The only constant in life is indeed change.
I continued by a site; a piece of land that used to primarily just lay fallow and looked like wasteland, and I noticed that they are now building *apartments* there.
There was a time when one of the primary criticisms of this town was that there were *no* apartment buildings and basically *no* affordable housing for anybody to live in. Evidently the city council worked very hard — at least at the time — to make the town essentially *out of reach* to anybody who didn't come with a significantly sized bank account.
For as long as I can remember, the issue of *affordable housing* has been swirling around in the community, while the powers that be would always studiously avoid that topic.
However, one of the problems we eternally face around here is that the people who work in the service industry; in the banks and the supermarkets and restaurants to support the people who already *live* here have to drive 20 miles to the next town over because they can't *afford* to live here.
Most local retail and service businesses can't find good help because this is a *"graying"* town and there are very few younger people around who are willing to work for lower wages. Besides, they can't afford to!
But things are changing. For the first time in several decades we now have a mayor who is in his 40's, as a refreshing change to the long series of mayors who have been in their late sixties and seventies. City council is also becoming younger, and so the *choices* that are being made now reflect more of a realistic approach to *actual life as it exists in 2023,* rather than the *"get off my lawn you young whippersnapper!"* approach of the gray ghosts who *used* to run things.
Even though I am rapidly approaching *"gray ghost"* status myself, I'm glad to see this particular change. It seems almost inevitable that towns and communities that set themselves up to focus on retired people take a turn where they *only* focus on the retired people while forgetting that somebody has to be there to *help and serve* aforesaid retired people!
And they need to *live* somewhere! And I don't mean *"in their parents' basement!"*
Next, I passed a property we had considered buying when we first arrived here, but which we ended up nicknaming *"Moldy Acres"* because they'd had a flood in the downstairs level and the smell of mold and mildew in there was almost unbearable.
We realized we wouldn't be able to afford the cost of remodeling and disinfecting the place even though we very much love the three-acre piece of land around it where we had planned to put up a bit of a homestead farming situation. I hope the people who live at Mosey Acres today are happy to be there!
As I got closer to home, I passed an area where there used to be groves of tall trees that weren't perhaps *entirely "old growth forest,"* but certainly very mature forest. Much to my surprise, and with a little sadness, I saw that a large part of the area had been clear cut for lumber, and another part of the area had suddenly become a neighborhood in the course of the last two years!
*This view always reminds me of one of my favorite spots in Montana...*
Yet another sign that the only constant in life is, indeed, change!
I turned the final Corner before getting to our neighborhood, and came across the vista with the road ahead that always reminded me of the part of Montana we had originally thought we would end up settling in. To this day, every time we round the corner and look down the road towards the distant mountains, we look at each other and say *"oh look, Montana!"*
Maybe there are a *few* things that don't change.
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful remainder of your holiday weekend!
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