How close (distance) are you to your family?

[Silver Fire]

My post in this (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=280166) thread got me thinking. My parents (and one brother, who lives with them) live about 20 miles away from me. My sister and her son live maybe five miles away (if that), and my other brother lives with his SO and their two kids between two and three miles away from me.

I have a half brother I've never met. He's in the Army somewhere and I have no idea where he lives. My grandparents live within 15 miles of each other, the closest being about 43 miles north of me.

With exception to the brother (a big pain in the ass) who lives on his own and so very close to myself, I'm pretty happy with this set up. My mom works about 13 miles north of me and I can see her quite easily any time I want. I'm also able to see my dad on fairly short notice, which is good because he's a truck driver so I usually get a call the night before saying, "I'll be home in the AM but I have to leave again on (next day)". It's good knowing I can just hop in my car and go over there whenever.

So how close are you to your family, and how does this distance make you feel?

[Cunctator]

My parents, sister, brother-in-law and nieces are about 120 km away. My brother, sister-in-law and nephews are about 150km in the other direction. I don't consider them to be all that far away. I just hop on the train when I want to visit.

[Hanna]

Interestingly enough, the reason I posted that thread was because of a major life-changing event for me. I had a baby when I was 17 and placed her for adoption. Her 18th birthday came and went without any contact from her. Then last Thursday she contacted me and wanted to meet me. Not only do I (who has no other children) have a 21 year old daughter who wants me to be a big part of her life, I have a five-month old grandson. This has all been a huge emotional event to me (although I knew in the back of my mind it was possible, becoming a grandmother at age 39 is a big shock).The only bad part is she lives about 140 miles (2 and 1/2 hours, with 1 reststop) away from me. I saw her for the first time since she was five days old yesterday. The meeting went great, better than I had ever hoped. I want to make the drive often, maybe even weekly, if I can. She has offered to come to where I live, but she has a little baby and winter is coming, and I feel better driving that distance myself instead of her doing it.

The rest of my family is fairly close. My parents live about 12 miles away, my brother lives 22 miles from me.

[fishbicycle]

I'm separated by a border and 1162 miles from one brother and 3071 miles from the other. I haven't seen the first in 5 years. He has a son whom I've never met, who just started kindergarten this fall. My other brother has the Disney Disease and comes here whenever he can. I saw him last year. In fact he's down there right now, although he can't come up and visit me this time. That's the only family I have.

Coming here was the best decision I've ever made; I have all the stuff here that I could never manage to get when I lived up there. That makes me feel wonderful. If not for instant communication and e-mail, the three of us would all be strangers now. I guess everybody does what they have to. Two of us had to move far away to make our living and get what we needed from life; the other stayed where he was and has not made much of anything. That's why I don't miss where I came from. If I was still there, I'd be in the same boat I was in before.

None of us can just get up and go visit the other, it's far too expensive. So we keep in touch electronically.

[Medea's Child]

I'm currently in Shanghai, my family in Michigan. Its far away.

But in December I'm going back home, its just a study abroad.

[Nightwatch Trailer]

According to Mapquest I live 1982.75 miles away from my family (parents and three brothers) except for my older brother, who is only about 1907 miles away.

How do I feel about that? This is the first time I've been away from home on a long-term basis, and I miss my family terribly. It's tough having to wait months just to see them for a few days. Phone calls don't cut it...

[Profane]

I live in Virginia, my mother lives 2 hours away in Richmond. My sister lives in Maryland. My other sister is in Connecticut, an hour away from my father and his family. My grandparents, aunts, uncles etc all live in Kent, England.

My husband's family is all in California as far as I know.

[silenus]

My parents live right down the road...about 10 miles away. My sister, on the other hand, lives in Nashville, which is on another planet! :D

[Kyla]

I live 2141.31 miles (according to Mapquest) from my family in California. I'm jealous of my friends and coworkers who see their parents all the time, but really, no one forced me to move away, I did it on my own, I'm okay, and I do love Chicago. I'd like to move back someday, though, just to be closer to my parents. They won't be around forever, and if I should ever have any kids, I'd like them to be nearby.

At least here I can fly back fairly easily for a three day weekend. The farthest I've ever lived from my family was when I studied abroad in Jerusalem - that's 7000 miles and ten time zones.

[pyrrthon1]

My family lives over 1000 miles from me and it couldn't be far enough. I never visit them and never want to.

[ladybug]

I live 237 miles from my parents and sibs. That may not seem like a lot, but we're pretty close and I hate being separated by a four-hour drive. I try to get home for a visit whenever a get a three-day weekend at work.

Fortunately I was able to get the entire Thanksgiving week off from work, so I'll get to spend a little more time with my family then.

[foxymoron]

I live in Omaha, Nebraska, in the middle of the U.S.
According to mapquest.com I am:
1707 miles from my mom (in Salem, Oregon); 1383 miles from my sister (in Burlington, Vermont); 3538 miles from my dad (in Moose Pass, Alaska) (but really 8-12 hours, depending on layover length, by plane).

How do I feel about that? I think it sucks and it makes me sad. I don't necessarily want all of them living next door to me, but I would be happy if they lived maybe an hour (or less) away by car.

[Anastasaeon]

I live almost 3000 miles away from my family. It's brought us closer.

[dangermom]

My parents and sister live a couple of miles away. We moved here partly to be closer to them. My brother and his wife live here, too. My other brothers live 3 hours away and across the country. I wish they were closer.

DangerDad's folks live about 2 hours away, as do his brother and his wife. Those two families live way too close together, and we wish the brother could move up here. The other brothers live in Japan (too far, but great opportunity for trips) and also 2 hours away.

[Lsura]

According to MapQuest, I'm 638.20 miles, door to door, from my parents' house, and I'd be about the same from one of my brothers, since he lives a couple of miles from my parents. My younger brother is about 2500 miles away from me, and my oldest brother & his wife are the closest, at about 360 miles.

This is the farthest I've been since I was at college, about 1,200 miles from my parents. Since then, most of the places I've lived have been somewhere around 100 miles from them (By a freak chance, the mileage from my apartment in (north)Atlanta and my apartment in Knoxville registered as the exact same mileage to my parents' house).

[GingerOfTheNorth]

We live in Baltimore, Maryland. 2550 miles and a border to my Mom and step-Dad (Barons, Alberta). 2800 and a border to my Dad and step-Mom (Edmonton, Alberta). 3790 and a border to my sister (Yellowknife, NWT). I only get to see them once a year. This year, actually, my mom and step-dad are coming at Christmas, so yay!

The fact that we live so very far away makes me feel awful. I miss them a whole lot. I'm especially going to be missing them when this baby is born, and won't know its family outside of my husband's family - who live within a half-hours' drive of us.

[Kilvert's Pagan]

I'm a Cleveland native who spent most of adulthood in Wyoming and Colorado and now am now living in Lexington Kentucky.

I'm 1892 miles from my mother in Tucson and about the same from my sister.
I'm 2564 miles from my brother in Bremerton WA.

I don't like it.

But we're only 182 miles from my in-laws, which was important to us since we now have kids. 3 - 4 hours away from the grandparents is not too bad. Hell would freeze over before I lived in Vincennes Indiana, so this may be about as close as we get to them.

[Low Key]

Right now I am in New Zealand and my parents and brother live in Sweden. So, that's pretty far away. I do go back home in June next year though, so I'm not this far away for too long.

Normally I study in Glasgow, Scotland, though. So, that's really not very far away. Just a 2 hr. plane trip (which is dirt cheap due to Ryanair flying directly) and I'm home. I only go home for my longer breaks (xmas, summer). Sometimes my Mom wants to visit me so flys down for the weekend.

My sister lives in Minnesota so I rarely see her. We keep in touch via email though.

I don't mind being far away distance-wise from my family. There are still phones and email if I feel like calling. And there are planes if I would like to visit them (or vice versa). Distance really isn't an object in my mind - maybe it would have been many years ago, but not any more.

[Lamar Mundane]

I live about 1500 miles away from most of my family (father, 1 sister, brother and sister-in-law). My other sister lives in Jakarta, Indonesia, about 10,000 miles.

We are all very close, and in regular communication. I don't need to see them every week to stay in contact.

[asterion]

We live in Baltimore, Maryland. 2550 miles and a border to my Mom and step-Dad (Barons, Alberta). 2800 and a border to my Dad and step-Mom (Edmonton, Alberta). 3790 and a border to my sister (Yellowknife, NWT). I only get to see them once a year. This year, actually, my mom and step-dad are coming at Christmas, so yay!

The fact that we live so very far away makes me feel awful. I miss them a whole lot. I'm especially going to be missing them when this baby is born, and won't know its family outside of my husband's family - who live within a half-hours' drive of us.

Hey, you'll find a way. My family moved 1600+ miles from either of my sets of grandparents plus any other extended family and we still managed to see each other every once in a while. (When I say that we're the only branch of the family west of the Mississippi, I ain't kidding.)

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

I am 850 miles away from my parents, and my sister and her family.

It's not heartbreaking, or anything, but I do wish I could see my parents more, and that my son could know his grandparents and cousins better. I went far away for college and pretty much knew, at that point, that life would probably keep me at a distance. It would be easier to swing visits if they didn't live 2 hours from any major airport. I get home 1-2 times a year, and they try to come out our way to visit at least once.

[Queen Tonya]

One sister bought a house three hundred feet from mine, do I win a dependancy prize? :D

Growing up, all the grandparents and aunts/uncles were within five miles from us, in fact when Grandma 1 purchases a bigger place a few miles closer, Grandma 2 sold her house and moved into the upstairs apartment. The great-grandkids all grew up calling them Grandma Up and Grandma Down. They've passed on, and when my parents retired they moved 250 miles away. Huge adjustment from seeing them on a near-daily basis, but they come down or we go up at least once a month. All the cousins in my generation started out in the same city, but many have moved upward to more affluent communities as they got older. Most of us are within a twenty-mile circle though.

I've got a sibling I don't much like five miles away, and the last sibling, the one I actually like spending time with the most, 350 miles away. That makes me sad, I only get to see those neices and nephews maybe once a year and my own son has to be reminded who that Aunt is before each visit, I wish we were closer.

[Eliahna]

My in-laws, my parents and my brother all live mere blocks from us in a less-than two kilometre radius. To counter that, my father-in-law and his new wife, their children and my brother-in-law all live in Scotland which is something in the vicinity of 16,925km away.

[pointless addition]My husband, being sarcastic, asked me why I didn't just Ask Jeeves (www.ask.com) instead of using Google, so I did and Jeeves told me the exact distance from my small Australian town to my BIL/FIL's small Scottish town. That is so cool! I never knew Jeeves had that feature.[/pointless addition]

[dangermom]

One sister bought a house three hundred feet from mine, do I win a dependancy prize? :D
No, because I forgot to say above that we're hoping to purchase half of my parents' property and build on it. They have two acres, so we want to buy the back acre. So I think that puts us at a tie. :) My parents are easy to live with, so being right behind them wouldn't be horrible.

(What's stopping us, you ask, from doing it now? Answer: the next-door neighbors' son runs his trucking company from their back acre. He owns other land and is supposed to be moving his shop out there. :dubious: That isn't happening quite as soon as we'd like.)

[Shagnasty]

My family is all scattered from each other (none even live in the same state) but the average is about 1700 miles.

[doreen]

I live about five miles from my parents and two sisters. One of those sisters lived next door to me until a month ago. My brother is about 25-30 miles away. Also living close by are an aunt, uncle and 2 cousins ( about six blocks away), two great aunts ( 5 blocks away) ,two more cousins within 2 miles, three cousins near my parent's house and another one about 10 miles away. My grandfather lived with my mother until he died , and another aunt,uncle and cousin moved away within the past couple of years. Most of my husband's family is just as close, except for his brother who's about 400 miles away

I like the closeness. My kids are close in age to my brother's daughter, sister's son, and my sister-in-law's daughter , so they get along almost as if they were siblings- actually better, since they don't live in the same house. My kids know their aunts, uncles ,grandparent's and cousins well. They knew their great-grandfather. They even know their great-aunts and uncles, two great-great aunts, and their second cousins.

[Ephemera]

2,500 miles, give or take. I'm in the Salem, Oregon area and all my family is in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area.

I've not seen any of them since I moved in January and, honestly, I don't miss them that much. I am not sure if that makes me a bad person or not but it's the way I feel. Sure, I still love them, but I'm the kind of person that tends to forget after a while. Out of sight, out of mind.

I still talk to them every week or two though.

[yellowval]

I'm about 10 miles from my dad and step-mom and about 15 miles from my mom. My sister and brother-in-law and two of my nieces live 12 miles away, as does my paternal grandmother. Another sister, brother-in-law and two nephews live about 20 miles away. My third sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew live about 150 miles away. My maternal grandma is about 40 miles away.
My in-laws live about 25 miles from us. My sister-in-law and her son live about 30 miles away. My other sister-in-law, husband, and kids live about 300 miles away right now, but will soon be moving farther away. My husband's third sister, husband, and kids live in Florida.
I love having my family close by. Right now, we're close enough to family that we can see them whenever we want, but we don't feel smothered. I like being able to just "run out to dad's" or spend the day with my mom whenver I like. My 15-year-old nephew goes to high school in the town where I live, and he often stops in and brings friends. I love having that close relationship with him.

[Athena]

I live in the same town as all of my immediate family. My parents and one of my brothers live less than 2 miles from me. The one brother that lives in a different town is all of maybe 15 miles away.

Additionally, I have both grandmothers (grandfathers have passed away), several aunts, and cousins out the whahoo that live in the same town. My aunts and uncles who don't live in town come to visit at least a few times a year.

I like living close to everyone. We socialize with my parents and brothers at least once a week or so - some weeks more. This weekend, for example, we're putting a new roof on the family cabin (a whopping 10 miles out of town, in the wilderness!) and I'm guessing most of the immediate family will be there to help. Just like an Amish barn-raising, except with more beer and power tools :-)

[Wesley Clark]

My parents live 145 miles away, but its interstate and highway the whole way to see them so its only about a 2.5 hour trip. My brother lives in the same town as my parents. My brother's wifes whole family more or less still lives in the same town. I hope when I graduate that I can find a job in Indianapolis so I will only be 1.5 hours and 80 miles away from my family. That would be a dream and I'd gladly take a lower paying job (24k vs 35k) in order to make that happen.

[dwc1970]

My immediate family all lives close by. I'm less than a half mile from my Mom and Dad. One of my sisters lives about three miles away and my other sister lives about 12 miles from me. My grandfather lives about 20 miles away. Most of my aunts and uncles are within 50 miles. A few live in the neighboring states of Oregon and Washington. The furthest ones from me live in Pennsylvania and Florida. I also have one uncle in Kansas.

[Iris]

Most of my immediate family lives in the DC area. My parents live about 20 miles from me and my brother is less than 10 minutes from me (but I don't get to see him enough). I love having my family close by, it will be even more important when I have kids someday.

[lightingtool]

According to Mapquest, I'm 2912.04 miles away from my parents. We talk about once a week, and I try to go see them once or twice a year. The distance doesn't really bother me.

My closest relative is my uncle who lives about 400 miles away.

[Doctor Jackson]

My family:
Grandparents - next door
Parents - 5 miles
Sister #1 - 7 miles
Sister #2 - 15 miles
Aunt - 10 miles
Uncle - 25 miles

My wife's family:
Dad - 100 miles
Mom - 300 miles
Brother - Uhm, we're not sure. He pops into the picture about every other year.

As you can see, my family are very much homebodies. We've been in this immediate area for about 250 years (well, not us personally but the family line)and nobody seems to be in any hurry to leave.

[FairyChatMom]

It takes about 2.5 hours to drive to my mom's house when traffic is bad, maybe 15 minutes less if it's good. One of my sisters lives about 6 miles from Mom - I pass her place on the way. My brother's place is probably about the same, time-wise. My youngest sister lives in East Baltimore - maybe 1:45-2 hours, again, depending on traffic. The other sister is about an hour and a half away.

My daughter is 800+ miles away, and I really hate that. My inlaws are pretty much that far away also, but in a different part of Florida from my kid. My husband's brothers are both within an hour of his folks.

[tremorviolet]

Almost all my family is in Florida and I'm in Texas. That's about a thousand miles away. My borther did live here in Austin when I moved here but he's moved back to Gainesville too. I'm not super close to my family but I don't like being so far away. I have a lot friends here but no SO or roots so I'm thinking about moving back to Gainesville. There's just something about knowing there's someone you can call if you wind up stranded on the side of the road at 3 am...

[Yllaria]

Youngest sister is in Longview Texas, 1542 miles away from me.
Younger sister is in Victor New York, 2312 miles away from me.
My Mother is in Kamiah Idaho, a mere 631 miles away.

On the other hand, my middle son lives in Galt, 21 miles away.
My eldest son lives in Davis, 47 miles away. And my youngest is in Roseville, 54 miles away.

When I was growing up, I had three grandparents, several aunts and uncles and a covey of cousins all within seven miles. In fact the first house I remember was down the block from one set of grandparents, and nearly across the street from Grandma Lil.

Interesting to work this out.

[Lips_Obsession]

I live in NE Ohio.
My parents are in a suburb of Chicago, about 350 mi away.
My grandma also lives about the same distance, being about 20 min. from my parents.
My brother is in California, so he's several thousand miles away.
My g/f is in western PA, about 189 mi away.

[Indygrrl]

My mom and dad, two brothers, and my sister all still live in my hometown which is 14 miles from Indianapolis. I feel lucky that we live so close. We are a very close family and I can't imagine living much farther than this from them.

I do have an aunt and uncle who live 3000 miles away, but they moved so long ago that they don't even feel like part of our family. I never got to know my cousins, and neither has my grandmother, who is the main person I feel has missed the opportunity.

They don't even make any attempts to come for the holidays. They always tell us to come visit them, but it doesn't really make sense for all of us to pack up and fly out there, get a hotel, etc. when they could easily come and see both of their families and really make their parents happy. But, I guess they've shown us that they don't really value family and it isn't their priority to have a relationship with us.

[Khadaji]

My mom is about a 3 hour drive away. She is the only family member I have that I care about...

[Cinnamon Girl]

My parents are 4,508 miles away. My son is 709 miles away. My aunts are 1,964 and 1,866 miles away. I hate it more than anything. :( I grew up only a few miles from both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles. The nostalgia I feel for those days is painful to say the least.

The only saving grace is my husband and daughter. But it also helps to have my sister-in-law, her wonderful husband and the only niece & nephew I'll ever have (by marriage, though) 52 miles away, my father-in-law is 19 miles away, and my mother-in-law is 362 miles away.

Well, at least our daughter will know her elders via technology (cell phone/imagestation.com/email). How depressing. She'll never know what I enjoyed as a child.

[Garfield226]

Currently, I'm less than 50 feet away from my immediate family (mom, dad, sister). I still live here.

My extended family, including both sets of grandparents, five sets of aunts and uncles, and four of seven cousins all live within a fifteen or twenty minutes' drive. The other cousins are still in the general region, probably around an hour and a half or two hours' drive.

[Lillith Fair]

I'm in Ohio. My parents are in Arkansas. My sister is in Texas. My brother is in Maryland.

That's what happens when you move around a lot. The kids drop where they land. Then the parents go back to where they started and keep complaining that we never visit. Also a lot of angst about not being around to see the grandkids grow up.

Let's see, when I moved to Ohio 18 years ago my parents lived in Austin, Texas. Then they moved to the Manassas, Virginia area where they lived in a townhouse, a house, then rented a house. Then they moved to Arkansas where they have lived in four houses, I believe. They claim that this is their last house. Really.

I'm in the same place for 18 years. And it's not far enough away. Thinking about moving north because they compalin that they can't visit Ohio after September because it gets too cold. I'm thinking North Dakota. Or Canada. Maybe Greenland.

[smartini]

My mom and my older sister and her family still live in our hometown which is about an hour and a half from Atlanta; our other sister and her husband live in Hilton Head, SC so it is about five and a half hours to visit them.

My husband's parents live in Huntsville, AL which is about 3 and a half hours. His sister and her family live in Houston, TX which is usually a plane trip or on occasion a 13 hour or so car trip.

My daughter is now back in Atlanta (yayyy!!) after being 1900 miles away for 5 years in graduate school. I enjoy having her just across town even more because I fully expect her to move away again at some point.

We're lucky that we are close enough to actually visit often, but I agree with Lamar Mundane -- you can still stay close even with distance between you.

And Doctor Jackson -- "Everybody is Somebody in Snellville!" It's very pretty out there so I can see why you are in no hurry to leave. My boss lives in Snellville and over the years has "almost" moved closer into the city several times because of her killer commute -- but she always backs out.

:)

[Giles]

Five years ago, I lived in the same house as three of my children, three blocks (5 minutes' walk) from my father, and about 160 kn from my oldest son.

Now, I live about 9,500 km away from all of them, because I moved across the world to a better job, and I only see them every one or two years. I miss them a lot.

[colour wolf]

I'm in Tokyo, and my parents and sister live just outside of Toronto, so that's more than 10000km. My brother lives in London, so that's probably close to the same. Miss my siblings a bunch.

Next year I'm moving to Sydney, so I think I'll be even further away. I'm starting to get the "When are you coming back home?" guilt trip from my mother.

[TroubleAgain]

My husband and I are both within 45 minutes drive of all our parents and siblings. This is fine with us, as none of them are close enough to be a bother to us, but close enough to see when we want to.

[NinjaChick]

I'm about 1700 miles away from my parents right now (what with being away at school). Only about 300 miles from my sister, but that's likely to change hugely when she graduates this spring.

My dad's family is nearly all in Maryland (about 3 hours drive from "home"). My mom's is almost all in Ohio, about an eight/nine hour drive from "home".

[racinchikki]

I am 1,700 miles away from everyone I am related to - parents, siblings, grandmothers, aunts, etc. - with the exception of one aunt, who lives about 900 miles away, but with whom I've never been close.

We are 100 miles from the in-laws.

[interface2x]

Okay, I can just give locations ...

Me - Chicago suburbs
Dad/Stepmom - Quad Cities
Mom/Stepdad/Sister - Tulsa, OK
Oldest Brother/SIL/niece - Orlando, FL
Older Brother/SIL/niece - Los Angeles, CA
Older Sister - ? (long story - last I heard NYC, possibly on her way to Bangladesh)

[Uncle Dragon]

I'm about 150 miles from my kid brother, and about 1200 miles from my two sisters, and 2000 miles from my older brother, and an unimaginable void away from my mom and dad, who have both gone to that great beyond.

[Suse]

I'm a Midwesterner, so I measure in time rather than distance.

I live about 2-3 minutes away from 6 of my 10 siblings. Two others live within 10 minutes, and the last two each live about 30 minutes away. Most of their kids live in this general area, too.

The in-laws are also about 30 minutes away, so my kids get to see their extended families a lot. As much as we are sometimes tempted to move, we do like that very much and so probably won't go anywhere until they are grown.

[Mona Lott]

I have a brother who lives 20 minutes from my house.

My sister lives 30 minutes from my house.

Another brother lives about two hours from here, in Princeton, Idaho.

Two of my sisters live out of state--one in Anchorage and the other in suburban Atlanta.

My mother lives in the same town as I do. My father is buried in the cemetary in Kellogg.

I have not seen my Georgia sister for 24 years. It has been that long since she was in Idaho, for Dad's funeral.

[Sami41]

I'm about 2 hours driving away from my parents, grandmother, my sister and her family. Close enough, but not too close.

I'm about 6 hours away from my brother. He's not close enough, in my opinion. Or, I'm not.

Aunts, uncles and cousins are spread out. One cousin lives 2 miles from me, another in Alaska. A lot of them I'm not in touch with, and don't have a clue where they are.

[Alessan]

My parents and kid brother live in Haifa, about an hour's drive away. I see them every week or two.

My sister suffers from a severe case of wanderlust, and is currently somewhere on the India-Nepal border (I think - I never really know where she is). She usually lives with my parents for three or four months a year while saving up for her next trip.

[yojimbo]

Having recently moved closer to my family home I'm now about 3.5mins walk away from my mother, father and sister. My aunt lives next door to them and the rest of my family all live in Dublin which isn't that big so they'd all be within a half and hour drive away.

[calm kiwi]

Parents are 10 minutes drive away. Brother is about 20 minutes away.

I only see anyone else in the family about once a year so they could live on the moon for all it matters.

[CrazyCatLady]

My closest family is the in-laws, who live 7 hours from here. My closest blood family would be my brother/SIL/niece, who live 9 hours from here. My parents, grandparents, and the bulk of my aunts and uncles are 10 hours away, give or take. In other words, it's a hellaciously long drive to just go for a couple of days, and in order for flying not to be real friggin' expensive, we'd have to drive a couple hours to larger airports on both ends, much further for my inlaws. So we get home two or three times a year, mostly. It sucks.

There's phones and email and such, but they're vastly inferior to actually being there. It doesn't help that most of my family is the sort who think the roads, phone lines, and net only run in one direction, so if I don't visit, call, or write, we don't stay in touch.