No MO FOMO

It’s not often that Hubby and I take some time off and travel away from familiar surroundings and responsibilities. When we do, we like for it to be close, just in case those familiar responsibilities should require our immediate attention. Last week, therefore, we chose to drive a mere two hours’ distance to the Arcadia Valley in Southeast Missouri. We stayed a couple of nights at a lovely Bed & Breakfast Inn and were upgraded (no extra charge!) to Scarlett’s Hideaway since we were middle of the week guests and maybe also because it was too dang hot last week for most sensible people to be visiting Southeast Missouri.

The room was quiet, comfortable, and at the back of the house close to the hot tub. You might think that a hot tub would feel downright uncomfortable in the middle of summer in Missouri, but you would be wrong. By evening time, the temp had dropped to a more moderate mid 70-degree range. Those hot tub jets felt very soothing to our sore muscles after a day spent scrambling among the rocks and swimming in the pools at Johnson Shut-Ins, a rugged geologic feature of the area and one of those places that are right up Hubby’s alley.

You can take the man out of the rocks (for a while), but you just can’t take the rocks out of the man.

Monday: This new creature with the long hair is a good deal in the way. It is always hanging around and following me about. I don’t like this; I am not used to company. I wish it would stay with the other animals…Cloudy to-day, wind in the east; think we shall have rain…We? Where did I get that word? I remember now—the new creature uses it.

Tuesday: Been examining the great waterfall. It is the finest thing on the estate, I think. The new creature calls it Niagara Falls—why, I am sure I do not know. Says it looks like Niagara Falls. That is not a reason, it is mere waywardness and imbecility. I get no chance to name anything myself. The new creature names everything that comes along, before I can get in a protest. And always that same pretext is offered—it looks like the thing…..

Built me a shelter against the rain, but could not have it to myself in peace. The new creature intruded. When I tried to put it out, it shed water out of the holes it looks with, and wiped it away with the back of its paws, and made a noise such as some of the other animals make when they are in distress. I wish it would not talk; it is always talking…..

Friday: The naming goes recklessly on, in spite of anything I can do. I had a very good name for the estate, and it was musical and pretty—GARDEN OF EDEN. Privately, I continue to call it that, but not any longer publicly. The new creature says it is all woods and rocks and scenery, and therefore has no resemblance to a garden. Says it looks like a park, and does not look like anything but a park. Consequently, without consulting me, it has been new-named—Niagara Falls Park. This is sufficiently high-handed, it seems to me. And already there is a sign up: KEEP OFF THE GRASS. My life is not as happy as it was…..

(Excerpt from Mark Twain’s short story The Diary of Adam and Eve, Part 1—Extracts from Adam’s Diary)