are you my life force

I had a lovely first day in ye olde Iowa. I got up earlier than I usually do on Iowa days because I had left some tings in my car that needed to be brought into the house before the sun turned scorching. So I accomplished that, drank some iced coffee, talked to my parents, etc.

At some point [censored] needed to go into town to pick up his string trimmers, so I went with him - and we ended up taking a v. long tour of part of the county. The tour started with the intent of seeing a newly paved road in town (v. exciting! although I miss the pothole that I used to veer around when driving past the cemetery toward the high school at slightly too high a speed to avoid being late many years ago). But we meandered through other parts of the county and ended up on a v. long dirt road - we're verging on a drought here, so the dirt road was passable, but I would not recommend it after a rain. It dumped us out at an old, nearly abandoned cemetery - most of the burials were in the 1870s-1890s. Of course, the cemetery isn't completely abandoned since it still gets mowed (my parents' responsibility, weirdly enough, since they're in the township government). But it feels miles from anywhere, and so very different than my life in Denver that it's always a bit strange to re-immerse myself in life here.

Then we came home and I spent the afternoon messing around the house and outside. Tonight, we had another round of family photos - Jackie and Shawn came over, and we did a bunch of group and individual shots. It was nice to see them, although it was brief; it was also nice to see Allie, although coming to visit us a few days after flying to North Carolina seems like a good way to get the 'rona.

And now I'm exhausted and need to sleep - goodnight!