I spent a week in the countryside of Baltimore, staying in my uncle's house for a week. in the morning I would walk around the surrounding countryside over rolling hills with the fog in the early morning and the quaint houses beside the road. It was lovely to walk in the fields or rather the road beside the fields and watch the section of the forest and the clearings with the rolling green hills. It was a welcome break from work although I still had to hold meetings, write emails and get some work done in brief periods during the day.
We would eat crabs, oysters, lobsters, shrimp and ribs, going to different restaurants or buying the food and eating it at home. Baltimore is famous for its seafood and we enjoyed this bounties of the sea. Good conversations with my uncle and aunts, reminiscing with my wife and sister-in-law the stories of their youth and watching them interact together. They are a very close-knit clan, coming from the northern side of the country and the families of their ancestors, keeping the relations active and strong despite all the years that have gone by.
I love the sessions listening to them, of their stories and of the people they engaged in, who are long gone from this world, their brothers or sisters, their uncles are aunties, their fathers or their mothers, and their friends who travel from the islands in Asia all the way to America into the city of Baltimore, during the 1960s and 1970s amidst the turmoil of civil unrest and the crime and drugs that existed in the old Baltimore. I watched the TV series ‘The Wire’ which was set in the city with the crime and decay of the society which have long gone and the city transformed into a magnificent and vibrant community.
We visited the Inner Harbor and Fort McHenry facing the sea and seeing the canons and hearing of the battles against the English in the War of 1812. Early in the week I drove for nearly an hour and a half to the Civil War battle in Monocacy. I walked the fields of battle seeing the old houses built during those times and imagined what it must have been to have fought in this field in what would have been a great battle and possibly the fall of Washington had the Confederacy succeeded. This was an incident that I was not aware of and only discovered when I searched through google.
I will remember this time with my wife's relatives, her cousin and the old Gentleman and his brother in their old age still remaining young when they tell their stories of long ago, enjoying the good food and conversation. This is the third time I've been here to meet them and it has always been a joy. I feel sadness when we leave this place and go back home. It was a wonderful drive though stopping off to charge my ID from time to time. The electric vehicle performs magnificently in the long drive of about 12 hours with frequent stops in the charging stations where I would rest. Work would intrude and my mind would have churning thoughts and feeling anxious after the heated meetings over the phone.
I keep envisioning retirement, plotting when I could leave, estimating my pension and the money I saved, and making calculations when I could retire. But the fear of not having enough money always stops me. But really it is not about the money but finally leaving the workforce and building a new life in the remaining years of my life. I hope to spend these times traveling and going back to Baltimore for those short vacations and continuing our relationship with the fine old man, his brother and wife and hear those stories again with their laughter and joy.
