Needs More Concrete

I realize that most of the things I seek out, take pictures of, most of what makes me turn and dangerously remove my eyes from the road ahead, are much like this. Rustic. Country. Lots of old faded wood and simplicity. This is what draws me. The above building, for example, is the oldest continuously operating cider mill in the United States, located in Glastonbury. How could I not go look at that? And yet, I'm a city person (almost) through and through. I didn't appreciate the non-urban world at all until I was about 26, and even now that I've learned I love traveling to, and through, rural wide-open places, I still much prefer to live in cities. I'm not quite comfortable without multiple locks between me and the street. I get nervous if I can't hear sirens and music and people I don't know talking on the sidewalk outside my window. But for the most part, when I want to explore some place or thing, it ends up being rustic, and shabby, and often when I get there I'm the only visitor.

Maybe next year (A.K.A next month!) I'll try to get back to my roots, and explore more cities. Not that I'd give up my old mills and pretty scenes and vacant little Main Streets - just that perhaps they should be mixed with some taller, shinier buildings, and graffiti, some clutter and discernible skylines and grit.