…………I am not so sure, anymore, but it seems it is to be found mostly around here.  You see, I am basically happy and I haven’t left the rock in almost three months.  In fact, the longer I do NOT leave this rock, the happier I get. Ergo, happiness is here.

Mind you, Sal is also here and that explains the bulk of the daily bliss but, really, I am here and I am happy. And that says something.  It is starting to say, “Don’t go anywhere, doofus!”

Sal and I have always traveled.  We wanted to see stuff.  We liked seeing stuff.  Different countries, cultures, cuisines and ways of life fascinated us.  But, oddly, not so much anymore.  I dunno.  There may be a bit of Binder Dundaht involved.  Definitely increased loathing of air travel, airports, cheap hotels and stifling heat.  Chicken buses have lost almost all of their appeal.  Then there’s the fatigue of it all that was never noticed when we were young but seems to play a larger role as you age.  We may have lost the urge to adventure, ya know?

But, back to the point: Point Here!  Almost three months!  That’s incredible!  Admittedly, I have left half a dozen times for a social engagement, a doctor’s visit, a site walkabout and something else or two but none of those ventures had me leave the island.  I just ventured local.  Stayed close. Stayed happy.  I have lived ‘feral’ as it were, for almost three straight months without once having to endure the ferry, the traffic, the shopping or the general madness of modern life.  And that’s just the local small town I am talking about….Vancouver may as well be in another galaxy far, far away as far as I am concerned.

And I am strangely and extremely OK with that.

I know, I know……age…..and all that……plus I have projects.  And more projects.  And I am slower than ever before so they all last longer….I know, I know…it’s all part of the circle of life, Simba. But, really, Dude!  Three months!  And it does not feel LONG ENOUGH!

I mention all this because we will do a town day sometime soon.  Maybe a week.  Or so.  I will drive.  I will shop.  I will hurry and carry and lift and then hurry some more and lift some more.  And we will ‘do town’ to set us up for another stretch out here.  But we are getting better at that.  We are getting to stay away longer.  We can do a month in a blink.  I did three months but that’s because Sal went into town twice in that span and friends/family came a few times and the so things like eggs, avocados and broccoli were handled by ‘shippers’.  But there is no question – we are stretching our visits out to at least a month and I think, with improvement, we can count on two.  Easy.  Or six times a year.

Or less.

And so you see it before your very eyes; the evolution of a hermit.  Albeit, a married hermit with a few neighbours but I am talking evolution at this stage and even extreme hermits had to take it one step at a time.  I think I am several steps down that path, the one so less taken it is still a bit wild.  And I am all the happier for it.