Country Bumpkin

I miss living out in the country. Being surrounded with nothing but cornfields, wheat, or soybeans. Having a clear view of a sunrise and sunset. I miss the quiet. The country is so serene and wide open. There is no thrum of traffic at night. Instead you hear crickets and katydids, or the belly of a bullfrog croaking. You can see stars for miles without another building jutting out into your view. The deer are comfortable being watched from your picture window while they graze and their baby fawns skitter about. A herron ocassionally decides to perch poolside - a midway stop to the next pond.

Our current residence is in a nice neighborhood. We're just outside of a village in a fairly simple, mature housing track consisting of three connecting roads just under a mile long. The average yard is about half an acre to an acre in size. The properties are divided up, sometimes by nothing more than a row of bushes. Others only by a contrasting shade of green lawn forming a line between the Smiths and the Jones's. Silence in our neighborhood is non-existent. There is always a dog barking, or a lawn mower buzzing, kids playing, cars driving by. There's constant noise and motion. Because it's a mature development, the trees are full grown and lush during the summer. During the fall, the roads are beautiful kaleidescopes of color. For the most part, every house is well-kept, preened and pruned. It really is a nice area... but it's not private. If I stand out my back door and call my dog inside, my voice carries like I'm yelling through a megaphone. I'm paranoid about being naked in my own house because I'm afraid a neighbor or passerby will catch me in a window. Even I can see activity through my neighbors' houses, wether I'm on a walk or getting the mail. In fact, I know that the house across from us has a tv that's always on upstairs - always. In the middle of the night, it's on. How do I know? Because if I get up to pee in the middle of the night, I can see their window through my window on my way to the bathroom, and there's the tv on, flashing through whatever show is on at the time. The other weekend, my husband was peeking through the blinds at the neighbors because a sheriff's car had pulled into their driveway! Of course, then we start speculating as to why the sheriff is there, coming up with all kinds of ridiculous reasons. Like I said, no privacy.

This all has prompted me to start looking for a different home, which causes so many other decisions that have to be made. We've been so lucky to have village electric - CHEAP electric and moving out to a more secluded area means less public amenities, not only electric, but possibly water, sewer, cable even! Oh, for the love of Pete, what will we do without cable?! Nevertheless, my search has begun for a 3+ bedroom, 1 and 1.5+ bath, 2 car attached garage home, complete with master bedroom and bath, fireplace, back deck, updated kitchen and at least two acres of land out in the country. Phew...really, I'm not asking for much. I just want to go back to being a country bumpkin.