Visiting my former city home area

I went to the city I have lived in longest for my basic skills test to meet a requirement for my college's teacher's program. I got there early, but they let me start the test early, too. I think I was done a little before noon. Then I had time to enjoy being in this city that somehow still holds emotional ties.

The first place after the test center that I got out of the car was at the grocery store that was just down the street from where our house had been, in the next block. I was impressed by the size of the grocery store, particularly how much it had in it. And when I walked out of the grocery store, I had a moment when I felt like I could just walk down the street to "our" house. This helped me realize one benefit of my family moving away from this city. After living in the country where driving half an hour or more to get some places was part of life, where I lived in Puerto Rico 10 minutes from Walmart seemed quite near a respectable selection for shopping.

After the grocery store, I drove around my former neighborhood a bit and went to the park to eat my lunch.This is a park we had gone to when I was little, the park with the sand hills to ride bikes or run on. I ate lunch and noted how bright the colors seemed compared to where I live now. It was as if my current country/smaller town life is in not as full color, somewhat like an old movie. The city had brighter colors, and then Puerto Rico had really bright colors in my memory, which makes sense as it is closer to the equator and closer to the sun.
See how pretty it was in my old city, looking up at the sky through the trees, my beloved kind of trees?

As my mom and I discussed, it was as if my current homeland had a spiritual cloud over it, but the city was in a place where the cloud wasn't as thick, and Puerto Rico is somewhere else with a different kind of cloud that doesn't affect me the same way.

Nonetheless, when I returned to my current area, the colors still seemed bright, as if I had immagined it, but I think I did not completely. I think one doesn't necessarily specifically notice the loss of light unless it comes into contrast with more light, except for the form of "noticing" which is not concious; the sense or experience of slowly wearing down.

Back to my city visit. After lunch, I took a walk in the neighborhood. I used to go on "dog walks" with a sister or two in the neighborhood, getting excersize and walking a dog. I enjoyed the beauty and the color as I walked it this last week. I tried to get good photos of the bluff that could be seen down the hill from some spots.

Immagine this bluff smoking and immagine one of the big fires that spread smoke accross our sky. Or just enjoy the beauty of it now. I really loved this part of the country. I guess I still do, though I don't know if I'll live there again.

Later, I tried to get onto the prairie that was on top of the bluff behind our house (a different bluff than the one pictured). I had some amount of trouble because of construction, but finally, with instructions from my dad, found a way up. It seemed considerably more developed. I think that there are less wheat field areas and more houses now. Here is a picture of some prairieness that was still houseless. A beautiful elevated prairie.

Here is what I think is the tallest mountain in the area, as seen from on top of that same bluff/prairie.

The end (of this blogpost).