Blogging from A to Z: One Square Mile Living (Oh the Irony!)

During the month of April last year, I participated in the A to Z Blogging Challenge - one alphabet-themed post per day (except Sundays).  I had such a good time with it that I'm doing it again this year.  I'm loosely organized on the theme of downsizing, minimalism, and small-home living that I've learned in 14 years of living on a small boat.  I'm starting with A is for Anchoring Out, Anger-ing Out, and ending with Z is for Zout and Zwarte Peper (Dutch for salt and black pepper). Click on the A to Z logo on the lower left sidebar for links to many other bloggers participating in the challenge.

A little more than one square mile around our present home marina (image modified from Google Maps)

There were 3 separate periods in my life when I drove more than an hour each way, each day, from home to work. In all 3 cases, I had an awesome job and lived in an awesome location, and didn't want to give up either one. So I drove. A lot. I remember hating how spread out my life was, and how little time I had to actually enjoy my home town, and wanting to literally "get my life together" by getting everything in one place. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everything we needed in life, school, work, shopping, home, play, was all within close proximity?

There was lots of talk about "one square mile living" around that time. Of course, this describes any downtown of a big city ... but I don't really want to live in, say, Manhattan. (BT, DT, no thanx not again). There are also new planned developments that had shops and offices and restaurants on the ground floor, and apartments above, you could walk to everything and didn't need a car.  Truly, one-square-mile living. Everyone, it seemed, was hopping on the small-footprint bandwagon, except us. I drove about an hour and a half north from our home to my job, and Dan drove about an hour south.  Sigh. We'd occasionally declare a car-free day one weekend day, enjoying the novelty of being no further from home than walking distance for 24 whole hours.

Fast forward to retirement and cruising, and finally had the opportunity to do the one-square-mile-living thing ourselves.  Had to, in fact, since we couldn't very well have a car as we sailed the boat from place to place. We found ourselves drawn particularly to smaller historic port towns -- Annapolis, Beaufort, Southport, St Augustine. Walkable by their very nature; they were all laid out before the invention of cars. Although we truly didn't need a car, we'd rent one every few weeks just for the weekend, to run errands conveniently, and to explore the surrounding areas. The irony? Now that I have that, and we've been car-less for going on 4 years now, I'm longing for wheels again, for roaming more widely.

"Be careful what you wish for, you may get it." Indeed!