Daydreaming

Daydreaming is fun. It allows you to step outside of your normal and go on mini mental adventures. Being firmly rooted in mid-life, my current state of crisis often sends me on a daydream as a way of escape. Wondering what if? Where to? Or what’s next?

As a family, we moved to Florida in 2013. I was offered a great opportunity at a growing company and we took it. It’s impossible to regret the decision. We live in a nice neighborhood, my daughter has had a stable environment from elementary school through high school, and the weather in Florida in December and January isn’t bad at all. Not much to complain about, except the fishing.

But Mike, you live in Florida you dummy, the fishing is great!

Yeah, but not for me, I’ve tried the salt, I’ve tried the marsh, heck, I’ve even tried the swamp, but nothing really fills my soul like being able to take long walks in the shade, wade in cool, flowing water and cast a fly toward a (sometimes) willing trout. When you grow up in Pennsylvania, there’s something about “the woods” that just penetrates your being. Even if the memory is probably fonder than the reality.

So I’ve been daydreaming often. My daughter is headed out of state for college in the fall. Could that be a cue to finally make a move and return to my beloved woods and trout water? If so, where would we move? Pennsylvania? North Carolina? Colorado? Idaho? Oregon? The locations that could fit the bill are numerous, and if I do enough searches on Zillow, I can just imagine living in each and one of them.

Side note: The only rule my wife has regarding where we live is it must be within driving distance from a Target (not a Walmart). And that rule really has little to do with her shopping preferences, rather towns that typically have Targets also have infrastructure to support health care options, airports, and other important things like that. The same can’t always be said for Walmarts or Dollar Generals.

But then I snap back to reality. What the heck would I do if I moved? The job market isn’t great right now. (Is it ever?) I’ve performed my current job for the same company for almost two decades. What else am I actually qualified to do besides that (and write crappy blog posts that nobody reads)? Do I toss my career aside in the name of fly fishing for trout? That sounds like a bit much.

Then I slip back into daydreaming again, this time imagining doing something totally different than the corporate office job I have today. Such as being a tour guide, driving a school bus, or opening up a hot dog stand and chatting up the “regulars” each day. Basically anything except sitting beneath a bank of fluorescent lighting and attending endless in-person and virtual meetings. New vocations, such as those referenced sure sound fun from afar, although the feasibility of paying the bills on those types of salaries usually provides a rude wakeup call.

Anyway, at this point I’m rambling. What does this post even mean? Beats me. Like I said, it’s fun to daydream. And who knows, maybe one of these days I’ll choose to make the daydream a reality. Or not.

Either way, I need to go trout fishing soon…

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