I haven’t lived in Michigan for 15 years, but I spent my first 40 there and I miss it.  But starting a car to get to school at 6:00 am is still a flashback I have to deal with.  However everything in life seems to be a trade off.  If getting up an hour early and having to start a frigid car at 40 was awful (and it is still my measure of what true cold is) then it is just as true that being a kid in the state was delightful.

The snow days, the Wings vs the Avalanche at the height of their hate for each other, the changing colors of the leafs, playing hockey on a pond with a broomstick for a goalie stick, and Tiger baseball in the summer.  It is still home even though I can’t go back, and it will remain home until I die even if my situation doesn’t ever allow for my return.