What am I thinking?

You know how in novels/movies/sitcoms you sometimes have the main character doing a voice over that indicates he knows he's screwing up even as he's doing it? Well I have that internal voice screaming at me right now! So what ill-fated act am I contemplating? I'm thinking of buying a piece of property!

Though I've never had a desire to be landed gentry, I do have a vision of the future that includes a wilderness retreat of my own. A place where I can go "sleep in the dirt", as a friend describes it, for a weekend without any elaborate planning. In the ideal version of this future vision, my wilderness retreat has some sort of basic permanent shelter (no electricity or anything mind you; just 4 walls and a roof) where I could store my gear, thereby making my weekend getaway even easier. Oh, it also needs to be within an hour or two of Decatur.

Anyway, that's my "someday" dream. Last Sunday in the classifieds, though, I thought someday might have arrived:

8+ acres, secluded, 2 waterfalls, rustic cabin, large timber,
abundant wildlife, ...

And it was (sort of) reasonably priced. There was a similar piece of property listed last year, but I bought Lucinda (the Jeep) instead. This time, though, I was determined to, at the least, go have a look and see if this was my Walden. Problem is, the (purported) seller won't talk to me!

I called Sunday and left a message with both my phone numbers. No response. I tried again on Tuesday and then yet again on Thursday, and I keep getting an answering machine. Today I left a second message. What gives? They took out an ad in the paper so I assume they want to sell the property, yet they seem to be impossible to contact. The only consolation is I figure no one else has been able to buy it out from under me. Sigh.

Oh well, it's the Memorial Day weekend. I think I'm going to see the balloon launch at Point Mallard tomorrow morning. Good thing it's not until 6:30; I figure I can sleep in.