To Danville from Danville and Back Again

This past week I traveled for work, again.  I like the traveling, it breaks things up and adds a little variety to things.  This past trip took me from my home in Danville, KY to Danville, IL.  Ironic, don't ya think?

Anyways, like on all my other trips, Avajar came with me.  I had to tone down his Christmas decorations to make him more mobile, which reminds me, I need to post pics of his Christmas decorations anyways!  He looks quite fantastic with them all on.

 So we hit the road in the rain and headed to Illinois.  It was POURING rain, and it continued to do so the entire way there. 

We finally made it into IL, which made me realized that AJ is one well traveled tree.  So far he has traveled from NY to KY when we purchased him, then to TN, then through IN to IL.  He really gets around!

When we got into town, we decided to do a quick drive around.  Well, I decided should I say, AJ keeps his opinions to himself.  I don't know what I was expecting, but I can tell you that Danville, IL was not what I had in mind.  When I picture a town hit hard by a recession, that town is that exactly.  It was so run down, delapidated and gray, and just plain sad looking. 

It made me really happy to live in Danville, KY, where we have a thriving little downtown that is pretty well taken care of, not run into the ground like this place.  It also made me realize that I live in a little happy bubble sometimes where I tend to forget that everything isn't all rainbows and sunshine.  Even though we humans are passionate, empathetic beings (well, some of us), it is still so much easier not to face things sometimes. 

And this town isn't even the worst of it, most people still had homes, and junk food, and electricity, and water, and cable tv.  What about the people throughout the world that don't have that?  My little brain can hardly wrap it's neural pathways around that one. 

So be thankful this Christmas season, for what you have and where you live.  Remember, you are where you are for a reason, good times and bad times included, for if you never had the bad times, how would you ever really appreciate the good?