Contentment

I spent about half of last weekend in Madison, the home of our state capitol and the University of Wisconsin.

There was a time when I believed that I would have liked to live in that town. After all, it is a great place. There are terrific restaurants (I'm particularly taken with Buraka, an East African restaurant on State Street. (Great stews, reasonable prices.)There's a youthful vibe. Great museums. An outdoor ethic. I love the fact that it's a great place to ride a bicycle.

But I found that as I was driving around the city, I spent most of my time trying to get to the left hand side of streets. Most of the main streets in the city are four lanes and split by medians. This means that every time I wanted to get to, say a bike shop on the left hand side of the road, I would have to drive past it, take a left, and then drive another half mile away from my destination before making some kind of illegal u-turn, then head back. I grew increasingly frustrated with this ordeal, which had to be repeated time and time again.

Now, I'm sure if I were more familiar with the city, I would rapidly adapt and find better ways of getting around. For example, I wouldn't drive. I would bike. I would learn short cuts and back alleys.

Most of my time in Madison was spent in bike shops and one super running shop. It was a nice time for me, but I found myself wanting to get home, so I could actually go running, or cross country skiing, or ride a bike.

I've found that this place in central Wisconsin is about the best place in the world to indulge those kinds of passion. The bike riding here is terrific. There's abundant cross country ski areas. There's even a relatively decent downhill ski hill. And it's all right out my door. And I don't have to make three left-hand turns and an illegal u-turn to get to them.

Madison is a great place to visit. But I like the livin' here. This contentment thing feels kinda weird.