For me, I have a growing desire to retire to someplace in the southern hemisphere, and spend the rest of my life looking at sheep or something. Australia, New Zealand or Argentina, preferably. Never been to any of those places; no idea why.
This was preceded of course by some internal imperative I felt after college to live and work in the Far East, and learn Chinese. Flew out here, scrounged about teaching English for a number of years, started out not knowing anybody at all. Looking back on it, that was kind of odd, actually.
And it’s not just about seeing the sights. I just want to move on down the road wherever it is. It’s almost as if my inner conscious is angry with me for not being a long haul trucker. And I want to drive. Being a passenger is enjoyable but driving is the most fun.
In my perfect world I drive all day, spend a few days somewhere interesting and then drive all day to the next spot.
I’ve mentioned to my wife that I’d like to buy and RV and nomad for a few years after I retire. She has no interest in that. The good news is that she’s definitely up for travel but wants to see a clean hotel room at the end of the day.
My father said he wanted to do that too. My mother said she had no interest in a “vacation” where she had to take her housework with her (i.e. with cooking and cleaning and laundry in an RV, she might as well stay home). I said good for her. And they gave up the idea, but they did travel a lot, just in a car and staying at hotels. They could afford it, and they were real vacations for both of them.
After 35 years in San Francisco, I seem to be interested in someplace with real changes in the seasons. You know, shoveling snow, raking leaves, warm evenings in the summer when you can cook outdoors, the first jonquils of spring, that sort of thing. I suspect I would actually hate most of it, being basically lazy, but it would certainly be a change. Perhaps I have Bad Weather Envy.
Roddy
As long as you’re just looking at the sheep everything should be just fine. I’ve really been wanting a mechaincal watch lately, I sort of know why but not really.
I have had this compulsion for many years to drop out and disappear. I am very social and enjoy casual interaction with people as long as I don’t know them that well. I would much rather talk to strangers for a few minutes at a coffee shop than do something with an actual friend. The irony is that I always have a lot of friends who I truly like, I just don’t like the actual dynamics of frienship.
I don’t have it anymore, but after I sold my last car, for some reason, I had to buy a blue car. Not just any blue, but sort of the navy blue variety, but just a little brighter. I tried to squelch the compulsion – and still can’t explain it – but just couldn’t pull the trigger on a car unless it was the right – or close to right – shade of blue.
Every blue car I saw, I would judge it on a 1-100 scale on how close it was to the perfect blue. And because I had already sold my car without buying said blue car, I resorted to taking the bus to work, which would have been great if L.A. transit were a more reliable/viable source of transportation for me. So I had bosses getting pissed off at me and for almost two months of consistently arriving late to the office, etc.
And then I found the right blue car and no more compulsion. I’m not overwhelmed by my car by any stretch and don’t even notice blue cars, in general. But for a time, it was all I could think about. Go figure.
I’m forever catching myself thinking of keeping a few backyard chickens - despite the fact that I a) wouldn’t be able to kill a chicken once it quit laying eggs, b) don’t have the time, energy, or inclination to maintain a coop, and, perhaps most importantly, c) have such a strong aversion to birds that I can’t stand to touch one.
I used to have the same urge to get a spinning wheel and loom, although I was never delusional enough to even consider keeping sheep.
I have a strong compulsion to live in New York City for a year or two. I’ve never been there and can’t really even explain it, but I JUST WANT TO. So bad. I spend a lot of time researching it, thinking about it, and planning it. I know all the downsides to it, so don’t bother. I still want to.
I am really wanting to get a boat and want to go around the world to the left [making the cross on the Pacific side, not going the more hazardous Northern Atlantic route] with another couple of people along with mrAru and myself. Something in the 50-60 foot range with 2 staterooms, 1 head and a decent small auxiliary motor for handling the movement in harbors, and a couple solar panels to help keep the batteries topped off to save on buying fuel.
I like to travel, or more accurately visit places. I don’t think there is anything particularly unusual about that, lots of people do I think. I live and work between trips. I do other things of course but it remains my main purpose in life. Fortunately my wife loves it too. It can be frustrating knowing you have a finite time and will never see it all
I really want to pile the kids into the van and drive to the Grand Canyon, seeing every natural wonder along the way–Yellowstone, Dinosaur Natural Monument, the Great Salt Lake, and on and on. Except after about 2 hours they’d be asking if we were there yet and bored out of their skulls. And by the second day they’d be REALLY bored and punching and biting and crying and screaming at each other.
I really feel for you - my brother and I were kids of the 60s and 70s so that style of road trip was not unusual for us - when my Dad was army he wasn’t home, and my Mom had the leisure to do long trips with us, and when he retired in 69 he ended up with a job that had 4 weeks of vacation time, and part of his job was working at different physical plants as a trouble shooter and management trainer so we would get off of school, pile into the car and head to wherever he was working that summer.
I think that kids are about the only reason to have the in car DVD players/game consoles, lifestyles have changed so much over the years that you are right that kids can’t seem to amuse themselves watching the scenery [and playing the silly car games like looking for makes/models/license plates and such] which is a huge shame. I lucked out, I don’t get motion sickness so I could read in the car, my brother developed the talent of sleeping like a cat - wake up for meals, tease the sister and go back to sleep for a few more hours:smack:
Perhaps this isn’t a great mystery, but I hate using a restroom stall immediately after someone else comes out. I breathe through my mouth (grosser than breathing through my nose, actually) and am completely grossed out. Likewise, when entering a hotel room I hate any indication that I’m not the first one staying there. A half-roll of toilet paper, tiny scratches on the wall, general wear and tear. Even in nicer hotels, it seems there is always something to obsess about.
All my life I’ve had a compulsion to divide any group of four objects into seasons. Which is most like spring, like summer, like autumn, like winter? Drove my family nuts.
Whenever I drive past a military base (often somewhat deserted or derelict) and look through the wire fence at rows of Nissen huts or neat brick buildings, I feel a physical, stomach-wrenching sense of… something - sort of loss and longing.
My father was in the RAF in the 1970s, stationed in Cyprus, and although we did not live on a military base, we did spend time in them - so I guess it must be related to those experiences, but I don’t know why.
