We’ve been here before, and no, I’m not just referring to our battle against the coronavirus. When I finally publish the book of these posts, I’m leaving that sentence in because it’ll be evergreen. No, I’m referring to the great “Live Free or Die Trying” state of New Hampshire. We came here last year, and it looks like we will every year in the future.

Speaking of evergreens, from its pristine trees to its pristine trees, this place has trees. And lakes. And Trump 2024 signs, because even the democrats here are secretly republicans. How could you not be? So much land, so much freedom, so much guns. It’s like a republican retiree’s holy land, what Boca Raton is for old Jews, but less lox and more glocks.

Everything is spread out, such that you have a neighbor, and if you’re lucky more than one. It’s small town, midwest, northeast America. The nearest store is five miles down whatever road you’re on. The nearest restaurant is seven and a half, but, whoops, it closed at 5:00 pm, after the folks in the area finished dinner. Last call isn’t 4:00 am; it’s 4:00 pm. We learned this last year, but last year, we were off the grid in a cabin by a lake avoiding people who spread a global pandemic simply by existing.

The difference now is that we’ve got the hook up, a place to a crash, a small bedroom to sleep in that was built about 275 years ago. And the vaccines, which seem to work moderately well against the Delta variant, but less so against the Aer Lingus one out of Ireland. Of course, my favorite variant is Lufthansa, but that one is really only in Germany and some parts of Europe, with a short layover in Madrid. We will eventually eradicate all the variants, like we did the Pan Am variant of polio one hundred years ago.

I thought about not even mentioning the coronavirus, but what am I? I’m somewhere between Outlander and Grey’s Anatomy, not quite feral but not quite paying the coronavirus a day-player fee on set. And I’ve only been to New Hampshire during the middle of a global pandemic. I’ve yet to see what “living free'“ actually looks like. So if you’re careful, you can enjoy a day at the lake beach and eat indoors in one fell swoop. But what does freedom look like?

Anyway, go visit New Hampshire. You’ll never see me there because of all the trees, and if it’s nighttime, forget it. There’s no light pollution, so the dark is dark. I’ll be there, you just won’t see me. I’m like a New England Batman (Ben Affleck???) swinging through the trees and throwing batarangs at bats and oranges. They don’t grow oranges there, so for that part, I’m waist deep in a Hannaford playing DIY fruit ninja, A.K.A. nothing new.