Over a month in, I still don't know my new neighborhood very well. Worse yet, I haven't figured out any good On The Way places. Convenient stops on my way to the places I need to go. A relatively inexpensive gas station on my way to work. An easy place to grab wine on my way home.

The obvious solution would be to look around a little, turn down any of the endless potential roads-not-taken. But being new to the area makes me, counter intuitively, less rather than more likely to explore. I'm more stuck to the inevitability of my route, feeling the gravitational pull of the places I'm driving to, like a steep slide from work to home. "I still have a quarter tank of gas." "Maybe we don't need wine with dinner."