Starting the New Year

Now that the book stuff is all sorted -- old challenges put to bed, new challenges accepted, and books chosen -- I can turn my attention to a wrap-up of 2025 and maybe a look ahead into 2026.

I'm not very good with predictions, but I am noticing some trends.

Overall, 2025 was a good year. I celebrated my birthday by making some decisions to expand my life and my circle of friends. It seems to be a pattern right now that I have plenty of friends, but they live far away. I also have plenty of acquaintances, but they, too, live far way. 

I moved to this town as a consequence of my relationship with Kayak Guy. I won't say it was a mistake, but . . . the connection was tenuous. We probably should have thought it through more carefully. Now that relationship has settled into a cordial but distant friendship. For a while we were spending a lot of time together, even after calling it quits romantically. It was casual -- meeting for meals and working on a few projects together -- but it wasn't healthy, so I gradually put a stop to that. 

I don't regret buying my house here -- I got in when good prices were still to be had, so I have equity -- but it locks me into a geographical area that's fairly remote from the places I frequent. I should put down some roots here beyond owning a home, but so far, nothing doing.  

And so, apropos of my birthday, I spent some time thinking about the best times and best friendships of my life in the past, and discovered that they revolved around horseback riding and Dungeons & Dragons (a tabletop roleplaying game or, as I like to call it, collective improvisational storytelling. Sounds fancy, right? If you're not familiar, here's a good introduction: What is D&D.). 

Riding and roleplaying: an odd combination, right? But both are niche hobbies that require a serious time commitment and both attract a certain type of person . . . so I decided to give it a go.

I already started riding a few years back and that has been fun and fulfilling, but it hasn't created much socializing outside of my time at the barn. The barn is an hour away, and the people who meet there for riding and camaraderie live in various directions from that central point. We are all busy and further socializing seems unlikely to happen. 

That left D&D. I played many, many hours in college and enjoyed it immensely. My friends and I formed deep bonds, both within the game and in real life; we ate meals together, threw parties together, and went to events like the local Renaissance Faire together. Then the centrifugal forces of graduation spun us off into various directions at different intervals. We kept in touch for a while afterwards and although the bond remained, our contacts and visits faded with time as we got busy with jobs, marriages, children, and all the details of everyday life. This was years ago, before email, texting, and social media made keeping in touch so much more doable. 

Deciding to pick up the game again, I reached out to my local game store. They were nice people and welcomed me with sound advice about how to get started again. The game has changed a lot since I played in the early 1980s! Their help was very welcome, but that circumstance didn't really gel. There were no beginner-friendly games starting and there were no openings in their existing games, so I looked further afield. About an hour away I found a game store with a very active, beginner-friendly community and signed up immediately to participate.

That turned out to be a fantastic choice! I immediately met a game master who plays exactly the way I liked to play, lo, those many years ago, and several other players who also clicked with his approach. Suddenly I was involved in a Tuesday night game and a Saturday night game, every other week . . .  and my D&D life ramped up to an exciting, enjoyable level.

Things have shifted a little since then. The Tuesday night game ran into some personality conflicts in-game and in real life, and imploded (not uncommon in D&D, which is ultimately a game about people); fortunately, a different Tuesday night game has taken its place. 

I'm also playing in a Saturday night game and having a ball, especially considering how 7 strangers can coalesce into a fun-loving, adventurous party that laughs a lot and also gets things done! We have a wonderful mix of characters and an exciting storyline that challenges us to be heroes every time we play. It's everything I wanted in returning to the game.  

As part of this exploration, I tried on-line play but it didn't work as well for me. I enjoy the camaraderie of sitting around a table with friends, without a lot of tech stuff to navigate. I'm also playing occasionally on Sundays, in a very high level game, but time conflicts are starting to phase that game out.     

I haven't made any strong friends yet, but I'm definitely getting a dose of in-person interaction that enhances my life. I've also discovered that some people at work also play, which gives a different dimension to our water-cooler talk.   

Overall, I'm extremely glad that I took the plunge to start playing again. A little reinvention is good for the soul, you know?

Nearing Completion

At long last, I can say it: I'm returning home in a week, more or less! Hooray!

The books will move back in Thursday because of moving company scheduling challenges. The furniture will come out of driveway pod storage the following Monday . . . or maybe Tuesday. I'll still be dealing with punch list items but at least I will be HOME!

Here's a visual report on the floor repair. I love, love, love what they did with the floor. You may remember what it looked like after they cut into it to access the damage underneath. This temporary covering stayed in place quite a while, waiting for inspections. (The bathroom is behind you in this photo of the hallway; that's the AC closet, still needing a patch in the back wall.)

Once the repairs underneath were finished, the floor guy came in to fill the gap and refinish the floors. He'd promised me that I wouldn't be able to tell where the hole was. He said the new red oak would have a different grain -- to his eye -- but that I wouldn't be able to see any difference between old and new. I was hopeful but you know, not entirely convinced. 

Here's what he did to get rid of the harsh edges. (Now the bathroom is on the right and the AC closet on the left.) 

 In progress: 

And finished! Isn't it lovely? He was right: I can't tell at all. The satin finish was a good choice; I'm very happy with it. More of a sheen than a shine looks a little more modern. 

 

Now I'm likely to be pretty obsessive about the movers not scratching the floor . . . but I can deal with that.

Good Grief, What a Week

It has taken me the weekend to process all that happened. Maybe this is that crashing wave I dreamed about.

I was ecstatic on Tuesday because I received the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine, authorized by my doctor's certificate of medical vulnerability. The FEMA site was superbly efficient, everyone was polite and helpful, and a sense of euphoria was in the air among those of us in line. About 8 hours later, the vaccine knocked me right down with body aches and chills, but I recovered after a few hours. 

I felt good on Wednesday because the painters came to my under-repair house and worked their magic. My walls are now a fresh cream color (same color as before) and my kitchen is a lovely yellow. My first attempt at yellow 2 years ago turned out to be too harsh and too dark. This yellow is much more successful. It's paler, more gold than mustard, but still packs plenty of oomph. And I do love a yellow kitchen. 

I was hopeful and then heartbroken on Thursday when I received a call from Animal Control. The officer said they had found Missy -- but she was badly injured and in very poor condition. I drove there immediately. He recommended euthanizing her; in fact, he practically insisted on it. Right or wrong, I didn't want her last moments to occur in that kennel setting, all loud noises and hard surfaces. Somehow I convinced him to let me take her for a second opinion, and I drove her to the nearest emergency vet, who confirmed that her injuries were too serious. It would have been torture to even try to repair them. 

They brought her to me wrapped in a blanket, and she was purring. We had some private minutes while I reminisced about all our years together. I don't know if she knew it was me, but she knew someone was there, and it was peaceful, and she was safe and loved at the last.

Missy in better times

A Fire Story

This seems like a good time to tell more about the fire.

It started in the electrical wiring associated with the part of the heat/air conditioning system that lives in the hallway closet (the blower and the coils, I believe), and it was actually under the house. 

The house has a crawl-space and is supported by wooden beams. Apparently there was a pretty good smolder going for a while before the smell of smoke had me hunting around for its source. Talk about a terrible thought sequence: 

Did I leave the oven on? No. 

Did I have a candle burning? No. 

Did the neighbors start up their fire pit again? Nope, the air is nice and fresh outside. 

OH %#&@, the smell is inside the house!   

Right about then, I saw a wisp of smoke coming out of the bottom of that hallway closet. Seconds later, the smoke alarm started up its ear-piercing beep, also shouting "Fire! Fire! Fire!" The rest is kind of a blur. 

Even so, there is lots of good news. The house did not burn down; in fact, most of the damage is underneath so you can hardly see it. The fire department was actually very careful -- definitely NOT the old style crew that comes in with axes and hoses and destroys everything! Most of the water went down the hole they opened in the bottom of the closet, so it doused the fire and then soaked into the dirt underneath the house. Some water sprayed onto the wood floor of the hallway, causing some cupping, but most of the books were untouched. A few books got damp and later moldy, but only a handful, and none of the collectible ones were affected. (Oddly enough, these books were not the damp ones -- but you can see the bookshelves are right there. The firemen made this hole by removing the vent to get at the fire from another side.)  

Each of the cats reacted in character: LP hid in a closet and was carried out by a fireman. He was very calm and went easily into a carrier. Maggie also hid in a closet and was carried out, but as soon as she saw all the commotion she struggled until she got away from him and ran to hide in the neighbor's bushes. (She came back 2 days later, hungry and ready to resume domestic life.) Clouseau hid under the kitchen cabinets and was neither found nor rescued until everyone had left and I was cleaning things up. Then he poked his head out, seeming to ask "Is the coast clear?" and "What was THAT all about?" Missy, I'm sad to say, was on the back porch when things got crazy and she took advantage of an open door to run out. She has not been seen since. I think she has happily returned to her feral ways; I don't think she is even trying to come back.  I suspect if you asked her she would tell you she's been held against her will all these years. 

The power company came and took the meter off the house, to make sure there was no electricity that might start the fire up again until the wiring could be checked. The firemen who crawled under the house told me they banged into a bunch of plumbing, so that needed to be checked; meanwhile, the water was turned off. (I had the plumbing checked later; it was fine. Whew!)

Even though most of the house was undamaged, I couldn't live there without power or water. I stayed with Kayak Guy for a while but it became apparent that it was going to be months until repairs were completed, so now I'm in a furnished rental. I brought all the books with me, so they can be stored with air conditioning, while most of the furniture went into a large storage container in the driveway. Here's hoping the heat and humidity are kind to those items. It's all the hassle of moving without the satisfaction of knowing it's finished. It will be another 45 days until I can move back in -- assuming all goes well.

Now that they've opened up the floor, I can see what happened. (Yes, I had to go outside when they used the big saw to cut into my beautiful floor.) Repairs involve sanding, sealing, and reinforcing the charred beams and subfloor under the house, a new heat/AC unit (inside and outside), new wiring, floor repair and refinishing, and painting. That amounts to structural work, systems work, and remediation to get the smell of smoke out of the house. I am washing all the curtains, sheets, and towels, and have washed or dry cleaned all my clothes. I think the books will be okay, and the artwork. A good airing should be sufficient. 

So far I am very impressed with the contractor and all the workmen. I spent two weeks dinking around with one contractor, who seemed more interested in getting on the gravy train of insurance money than anything else. That contractor wanted me to sign a very one-sided contract and when I asked for changes to make it more fair, told me they didn't want the job. Okay, fine and what's more, good riddance! It was a blessing in disguise.    

Everyone once in a while I get a big whiff of that smoky smell and it's pretty unpleasant. Bonfires or campfires hold no charm or comfort for me right now. Instead I remember going to clubs back in the day and coming home reeking of cigarettes, just from being inside. I used to shower and wash my hair, even in the wee hours of the morning, because the smell was so strong. Same thing now: I don't need any reminders, thanks very much.

And mostly the house smells like fresh wood. (That's all temporary while we wait for the AC installer and the electrician.) 

I am fully aware that it's all hugely less difficult and disruptive than it could have been. Thank goodness it was only a smolder. Thank goodness I was home to discover it before it progressed to more. Thank goodness I have insurance. 

I am darn lucky.

Challenges Update

Not just reading challenges: life challenges need an update as well.  

The day after Christmas I had a house fire. Fortunately, I was home at the time. The fire department arrived promptly and the damage was confined to a relatively small area. The firemen did a fantastic job of not inundating the books with water but believe me, you never want to see them unspooling a fire hose through your front door!

Most of the house survived and appears normal, but the electricity and water are turned off and some pretty big repairs are needed. I am staying with Kayak Guy, who is great in a crisis. Three of 4 cats are with me and seem to be fine. Missy is still missing. She is a former feral and I suspect she has gone into full survival mode. There is no sign of her in the area, but I haven't given up hope of locating her.

All this to say, I am seeing your comments but it may be some time before I can blog the updates and details. I will try to do it this weekend, but I can't make any promises because the things that need my attention change from day to day. 

If you would like an extension to finish things up, please consider it granted. Let's say January 15th.

Let's also say good-bye to this crazy and tragic year and hello to better days in 2021. 

Please love the people and creatures and things you love fiercely and keep your priorities straight. You never know when things may change.  

Happy New Year, everyone!

Why Is That?

I spent a chunk of the weekend reorganizing the bookshelves. Between the random shelving of new arrivals and double-layered shelves, they were a mess. I couldn't find anything!

I looked for a book for a friend the other day and finally gave up because I simply could not find it. That's pitiful. (The same thing happened with my swim fins, mask and snorkel, but that's a different post. No snorkeling for me until I figure that out.) 

Mid-way through this re-organizing project, however, what's evolved are a bunch of stacks on the floor and the couch, grouped by subject. The shelves do look better, but the rest of the room has deteriorated, looking even worse than before.

That got me thinking: why do things seem to get worse before they get better? It's a proverb that it's always darkest before the dawn and all that, but seriously: why do things seem to continue to worsen after we intervene, before we turn things around? Why can't we just recognize a trend and stop it in its tracks?

Definitely food for thought while I'm moving the books around. 

Catching Up

And here we go! Lots of things are in play throughout my life right now, so here's another of those list-intensive posts . . . .

1. The reading challenges I'm hosting for 2019 are now closed. I think I'm caught up with everyone's sign-ups and books read so far. If you don't see yourself and your books, please give me a shout.

2. Prizes from 2018 are gathered and being posted soon. If you're a winner, I'll let you know when I actually make it to the post office.

3. Since my last post I landed a fabulous new job with a law firm and finished my first week this past week. Yay, me! I will miss doing water advocacy, and the fabulous people I got to work with on a daily basis for a supremely important cause. (I plan to keep volunteering, though.) After the semester ends, I suspect I will also miss teaching. BUT the new job pays more than the other 3 jobs combined, and comes with a generous benefits package. Ultimately, I had to make a practical decision . . .  and I was recruited by a good friend who's worked there several years and loves it. That made it especially difficult to resist.

4. Thanks to #3, I expect to recover my weekends -- rather than spending them getting ready for juggling 3 sets of responsibilities during the week to come. That should mean more time for outdoor fun, reading, and even blogging. We'll see if that holds!

5. Meanwhile, baseball season has started with the local college team. And my wild yard is producing multitudes of volunteer flowers with no prompting whatsoever from me. I'm even going to enter it into a contest for the most "river-friendly" yard, meaning no fertilizer, pesticides, watering, or other interventions. That makes it easy on Mother Nature and the river, as well as on the local wildlife large and small.

Life is good!

Thanks for your patience with my sporadic check-ins. I'll see you again soon! 

Moving and Unpacking, This Time

I moved into my house in April, and I'm still trying to subdue the guest room/office. If I was focusing on good news only, I'd be proud that the living room is in shape, with furniture arranged, pictures hung, and bookshelves organized.

I'd also be proud that the bedroom is finished. It was actually the first thing I did, per the experience of numerous moves in the past: having an oasis of calm and order amidst the chaos of boxes is very important to establishing a sense of hope and confidence. Setting up the coffeemaker and establishing a soothing sleep space are the first and most important parts of the moving-in process for me.

The bathroom is mostly finished, too. I bought a fancy new shower curtain which I have yet to hang, but then I will consider it complete enough. It's also highly functional, an important point.   

The kitchen is largely set up, as well. I'm trying out a kitchen table which seems not quite right in size, shape, and location, but I'm giving it time to grow on me. What I think I really want is a built-in corner bench with a round table that pushes up to it. While I wrestle with where to sit and eat (and the lighting thereof), the pots and pans and dishes and equipment are nicely stowed and the bright yellow paint I chose is also seeming more appropriate.     

But oh, the toll all this settling in took on the guest room/office! Everything I didn't need elsewhere went in there. Everything that I wasn't sure I wanted to keep at all went in there. Every box with mystery contents went in there. Now it's a maze of odds and ends and stuff that doesn't fit anywhere. The movers even put some of the boxes in the closet, which means I have to unload the closet first in order to organize it. Not very encouraging, you know?

And I still have to squeeze a bed and a nightstand in there somewhere, if I want to call it a guest room for real. Either that or a sleeper couch of some kind. Otherwise it's just an office and a junk room, and I don't want that!   

Stalling out in the office/guest room has forced me to admit that despite my best efforts, I might be a little bit over the edge of having too much stuff to fit comfortably in this house. Phooey. I thought I was doing so well.

Right now, I really just want the vacuum cleaner to fit into the closet.

Is that too much to ask?

Re-Returning

(But from where? The ether, I suppose.)

Vacation was wonderful! But it knocked me out of any habits I might have acquired (good or bad) and put me behind on everything. I guess that's the story of my life and I wonder if it will ever change. Probably not, unless I develop some better habits!

I've said yes to teaching again this semester and the Tuesday/Thursday schedule keeps me hopping. Added to my regular 30-ours-a-week job, it's been a struggle to balance everything. The manager of the book store took a two-month vacation herself, and I shared coverage duties with another volunteer -- to add to the schedule. So . . . It's been a busy late-summer.

Now, what's the upside?

Home improvements peaked this spring and then lagged, but in a burst of my usual fall energy I unpacked the last of the boxes in the living room and hung pictures throughout the house. The living room and master bedroom are settled now. The bath is mostly settled while I await the arrival of a shockingly expensive but irresistible new shower curtain that will change the look completely. The kitchen and guest room still need some work, as do the porch, the shed, and the yard. But it's all good and I'm enjoying the process.

(Well, I should say I'm mostly enjoying the process. I had a falling out with the lawn guy who mows all the yards in this part of town. Before I went on vacation I planted some large, native firebush shrubs that a friend had given me. I thought something so mature and so obvious (and surrounded by freshly turned dirt) would be unmistakably intentional, but the lawn guy thought . . . well, who knows what he thought? He tore them out and I returned from vacation to find them missing. I was heartbroken and angry -- not only for the loss of the plants (they were about 3 feet tall and blooming like crazy) but for their sentimental value. Considering my mental state, I left a very reasonable message on his answering machine. I definitely said, "I'm very upset about this" but I didn't shout or anything. In response, he left me a note saying he didn't want to mow my lawn anymore. Well, okay then. I'm now in search of a lawn guy with a clue about native plants and customer service.)

The cats are much happier in the new place. They have multiple views from multiple windows, and I've contrived to arrange the furniture so they have lounging places where they can watch the street and the birds. That's a big plus.

I'm getting more exercise than in the past year or so. That's definitely a plus.

I've cut WAY back on my Facebook time and I like it. It's certainly helped me find a few more hours that can be used in better ways. Thanks to a recent cool snap, "better ways" includes reading on the porch with a cup of coffee.

Hurricane Michael zoomed by to the west and gave us just a breezy day with a few rain showers. We were very lucky. Seeing the destruction in the Florida panhandle confirms my decision to avoid living on the coast and to evacuate if a big one comes this way. Even so, everyone here is still keeping a wary eye on the weather right now. 

Kayak Guy and I are still spending quite a bit of time together and having fun adventuring. Maybe it's just the daily life that taxes us? What an interesting thought.

I'm turning the corner on some of my reading challenges and think I might actually finish a few this year. That would be huge!

Here's to keeping this fall energy thing going as long as I can. Maybe it will help me write all those reviews that I'm backed up on . . . .

Returning

Yoo hoo, remember me? It's been ages since I wrote anything and this promises to be one whirlwind of a catch-up, just to get things started again.

I have NOT abandoned the reading challenges and will update everything back to current status as soon as I am able to. Please don't give up on me despite my admin laxity!

Okay, so what have I been up to? Well . . . .

First and foremost I have to blurt out that Kayak Guy and I got a divorce. That relationship began with some of the most incredible experiences of my life, for which I will always be grateful. We had so many fun adventures together! But I'm sorry to say that the nitty-gritty reality of blending two full and independent lives ultimately was too much for us. We're striving to stay friends, but I'm not sure yet whether we'll succeed. It's especially difficult to make the transition because we have many interests and many dear friends in common. That process goes on.

On a happier note, I bought a house! It deserves a post of its own (and perhaps many more as the fixing-up goes on) but for now I will say that navigating the paperwork was like having another full-time job. Whew! I hope I never ever have to go through that again! It was worth every scan and fax and records search, because now I'm happily more-or-less settled into my own little 1963 charmer, surrounded by nearly a quarter of an acre of sunny Florida yard. My head spins daily with plans for indoors and out. Such an exciting time! The cats are much happier here, too, with plenty of room to spread out on every available windowsill.

I'm still working and teaching, with a new adjunct gig starting next month. I've been seeing my share of baseball games. I have some travel plans in the offing. I'm putting my health back together with more exercise and more time outdoors.  Mother Nature continues to renew me whenever I need her the most. I'm feeling that I've weathered this stormy period and can see calmer waters ahead now.

And life is what it always is, delightful and challenging and changeable, all wrapped into one.

Some Things I Never Expected

Someone once said, "The unexpected is always upon us." I thought it was Soren Kierkegaard, until I tried to Google it and came up empty. Maybe it was Samuel Beckett? It sure doesn't sound like him. So anyway, it's a great thought and I read it in one of my favorite books ever, The Feast of Love.

And that will have to suffice to launch into this list of surprises.

1.  I live in an over-55 manufactured home community. That's a fancy way to say trailer park, I guess. (Thank goodness my mother will never know. She would be horrified.) This was very much a practical move: Kayak Guy's parents retired here many years ago. When I met him, his father lived here; my lease was up soon after his father passed away in 2014, so I moved in. The following year, as we whittled our stuff down from His, Mine, and Dad's into a single Ours household, it made sense to consolidate here rather than adding a 4th household into the mix. We said we'd give it 2 years and see if we liked it here enough to stay.

We're still not 100% sure we'll be here forever. We still feel the alluring call of northern climes, and of life with acreage, and of waterfront property. Time will tell if we have another household on the horizon.

2. There's a lot to like here. I like living in a reasonably sized house that gives us quite a bit of privacy in the back, so we can sit on the porch in our bathrobes and enjoy a nice view onto an undeveloped 5 acre lot. I like that it's difficult to tell these aren't traditional houses. I like the many trees and the birds and critters that pass through the yard, to which we are adding more Florida native plants. I like the relative peace and quiet, balanced with the minor bustle of our historic little town that has a vibrant main street, a college campus, 3 engaging independent bookstores, a baseball team, a locally oriented business community, and a CSA farm. (That's our old courthouse, still used for government offices, in the top picture, and the view overhead in the back yard in the one below.) I like being close to the beach, to our friends, and to good places for our favorite outdoor pursuits. I like having a pool and a hot tub that someone else maintains, and a ready set of pickleball partners for Kayak Guy.

That said, there's a little too much bingo going on around here, if you know what I mean. Many of our neighbors are 20 years older than we are, and less active. And the self-segregation weighs on me once in a while.

2. There are 4 cats in this household. I'm not sure how that happened.

3. I have cognitive dissonance. I love baseball even though I do not love pesticides, fertilizer, and over-watering. And that's only one example of the complexity my brain works with every day.

4. I don't believe in acupuncture, but it works. Thank goodness I discovered our wonderful local community acupuncture clinic, where for $20 I can receive a treatment that makes my migraine go away. Instead of 3 days of agony, I get 60 minutes of resting in a darkened room with a few ultra-delicate needles inserted in key points, and voila. Despite my Western skepticism, all better now.

5. I had a heart attack. During our wedding reception. It made for a really memorable day and I hear it was a great party. Too bad Kayak Guy and I missed almost all of it (including almost all of this dessert buffet) because I was in the emergency room and catheterization lab. But that's a whole 'nother post.

Hibernation Weekend

Even though it's spring shading into summer, my weekend included some hibernation.

Work has been extremely busy in recent months, to the point where all of us have been feeling a bit overwhelmed. That prompted my wise and perceptive boss to declare a "hibernation" period where we are going to concentrate on finishing work we have already started, postponing or avoiding unnecessary meetings, and tabling new projects until we get more comfortable with what's already going on.

I did a bit of the same thing in my personal life, too, though it was only one day of the weekend.

The weekend actually started on Thursday night with my town's monthly street party, Alive After Five. They close the main drag downtown to traffic and it fills up with vendors, food tents, people, dogs, and kids. This month's theme was Seafood Shindig. Here's a very bad photo of the pirate ship that was parked in front of one of the restaurants. (I need a little more practice with Hal's camera feature, obviously.) 

Afterwards we stopped in at the local blues bar. Real music, real people, real fun. The ceiling in this place is painted with chalkboard paint and when you are drunk enough they will give you the chalk so you can stand up on a table or the bar and write your own particular special message up there. The results are, shall we say, mixed. Not everyone draws pictures of hearts.

Friday was spent on the river, scouting for a paddling trip I'll be taking next month. Much as I enjoy the silence and closeness to nature of kayaking, it's fun to zoom along in a powerboat, too! 

Saturday was the hibernation part. I stayed home all day, except for a brief foray to the community garden to do my spring planting. Such a luxury to do chores, do some organizing, and generally catch up on things. It seems that when work gets busy, I start cutting corners everywhere at home, to make everything fit into the time available. I am still learning that taking some downtime before things spiral out of control is essential. But please don't ask me how many loads of laundry that took!

Sunday started slowly with more chores at home, including some yard work. My house has the typical bare grass backyard with a few spindly plants here and there. I'm working on transforming it (with my landlord's blessing) into a welcoming space that shows the best of Florida's lushness, and provides food, water and shelter to birds, butterflies, and small animals. That means laying out a plan, thanks to the local native plant nursery.

Yesterday, though, I was just laying out mulch, hoping to keep the lawn guy from mowing over my latest plantings. They don't look like traditional landscaping, so I want to be sure he can tell they belong. Eventually I won't need to mulch except with my own leaves, but in the meantime: I need to speak to him in a language he understands. And that language is pine bark.  

Sunday afternoon we went hiking, back to one of my favorite springs.  It was a perfect day to be out, just hinting of the coming summer heat. The same place is so different in different seasons, and I never tire of seeing what's new in Nature.

This spring was restored 10 years ago, after being drowned under a lake created by a farmer who wanted to water his cattle. After the property was acquired as state land, a restoration project removed the dam and uncovered the little ravine where the spring vents and boils lie. After being entombed under so much water, the spring was barely flowing and the banks were nothing but mud. In the time since, though, they have become a magical forest glade surrounding clear, quickly flowing water.

We got back to the car just before a monsoon of rain began - real pouring rain, with thunder and lightning. We need it so desperately! At home, my back yard puddled right up. Now my rain catcher is full to the brim and the cycle begins again.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Hello and happy new year!

After a long absence, I am determined to reopen the Cafe again in 2013. Frankly, I've missed the writing and the visiting and you, my bloggy friends. Part of my focus for this year (I hesitate to say "resolutions") is to spend less time on the things that matter less, and more time on the things that matter more. And so, here I am again.

Since I last wrote in any detail, I said goodbye to a sweet companion of 17 years. The Princess was devoted to me from day one, when she stole my heart as a tiny, wild kitten with a broken leg. One of my favorite memories of her is that on cold nights she used to sleep on my head.  It was like wearing a warm, fuzzy, vibrating hat, and thoroughly cozy for both of us. Our last years were particularly good ones; she enjoyed becoming an only cat and having all my attention.  I miss her every day.

I also moved into a new neighborhood, much nearer to the man in my life and in the midst of an artsy and historic small town that is doing its best to keep its main street character intact. I'm renting a house I would love to buy and enjoying its 1930's character and quirkiness.

I used the opportunity of moving to organize my bookshelves by color. The finished shelves, decked out for Christmas, turned out nicely! (This is most but not all of the books. Very deficient in purple, for some reason.) But it was terribly difficult to find things as quickly as I wanted.  I am about halfway through organizing them back into subject areas.  

The house that led me on such a wild chase this summer has been purchased and is being renovated. I imagine it will become a rental and I am still keeping an eye on it. I'm no longer interested, but I still like seeing how it is doing, now and again.     

I have been to some lovely places, made some wonderful new friends, heard some great music, and seen some fantastic art.

One of my law professors used to talk about how juries award damages to injured people by assigning a monetary amount to each year affected.  It's a flawed method, and he used to highlight the flaws by asking, "Aren't some years better than others?"

I can confidently say that yes, some years are indeed better than others, and overall, 2012 was one of the very best. Perhaps 2013 will be one of the best, as well. 

A Dream Realized

I've always wanted to do this, so as I started unpacking the book boxes, I figured:  Why not?  I have to tote and organize everything anyway . . . .

Thanks, Jenny, for the extra push!

(Please ignore the top of the shelves -- still a work in progress!)

 

A Fresh Start

One of the best things about moving is the chance for a fresh start. I'm not sure if I suffer from more inertia than the next person, or if I'm just busier (or less organized) than I should be, but once something is established, it's difficult for me to get around to changing it, even if I know it needs to be changed.

So, for example, if a piece of artwork gets hung in an awkward place, it can stay there for quite a while. I may be thinking about another spot for it, but it will take a while for it to actually be moved there. And I won't even mention the stuff that lands and sets up residence on the kitchen counter!

This makes having the blank slate of a new home even more attractive. There's the desire to have the new place be really nice, and a simultaneous chance to make it so because every possession can be unpacked and placed anew, in the new space.

All this to say I am enjoying the unpacking process far more than the packing.

I'm trying to make the most of the window of enthusiasm to finish moving out of the old place (various miscellaneous items still need to be brought over) and get settled in the new before the pace of real life picks up again. The "I'm moving" excuse only lasts so long!  Here's to getting it all done before inertia, busy-ness and/or disorganization set in again.

Points of View

Happy about this view of my kitchen window and the oak trees beyond. Foreground: housewarming flowers and a makeshift vase.

Also happy about this one, from my front door.  I didn't realize how much I missed having a vista to look at.  Between pee wee football practice and cricket games, this park gets a lot of use. You can just barely see a hint of the community garden in the distance, too, where I will be trying to renew my semi-green thumb. 

Not so happy about the state of my dining room, with all these boxes . . . .  But it's worth the effort!

Vacationing

I didn't intend to take a vacation from blogging, but that's what I'm doing.

An event at work, volunteering, the writing coach thing, an out-of-town guest, and arranging to move house have combined to soak up every available minute of my time -- and then some.

Moving day is this Friday. My new house is adorable and the owners have hinted that they would consider selling it to me, if I like it after I've lived there for a while.

The box count stands at 25, with plenty more to go.  That's mostly books. I haven't even started on the kitchen.

I already know my new neighbors on either side -- both of them artsy folks who are doing interesting things with film, writing, and photography. 

I'll be much closer to the man in my life, which will cut down on driving time considerably.  There was quite a bit of angst (on my part, not his) associated with living in such close proximity, but it has all evaporated now that the moment is almost here.

The community garden is just a walk across the street and through the playing field portion of the neighborhood park, where the cricket league plays every Sunday. (I don't know anything about cricket, but I'll have a front row seat.) Garden Plot #41 will be mine shortly and I need to get it together for the fall planting.

Meanwhile, the local, wild swamp sunflowers are blooming and I managed to make time to go see them.  Yes, that's a hint of a rainbow, off to the right.

It's an extremely busy time, but it's "good busy."  I'll be back in a few days!

 

This Was Much Easier

I'll be renting, not buying. That's a whole lot simpler!

By this time next month, I'll be living here. But the packing of belongings required is, alas, exactly the same.

D.o.n.e.

Amazing, how at some point a decision kind of makes itself.

My realtor called yesterday to tell me that the supposedly major title problem was resolved, the house wasn't going to be taken off the market, and the seller was ready to receive my new offer.

You'd think I'd have been thrilled at such a magical evaporation of a serious obstacle, but all I could think was, "You've GOT to be kidding me."

Change of heart, change of plans.

Maybe I'm just exhausted by the up and down of all this, over the length of the summer. Maybe I had time to think about whether mid-century modern on a great lot was enough to move me away from my vision of vernacular farmhouse on a good lot. Maybe I finally heeded the warning the Universe seemed to be sending me by throwing up barrier after barrier to getting this deal done.

Whatever the reason, I am back at square one, with a higher level of self-knowledge than before. And isn't that a big part of what the journey's all about?

Enough, Maybe

The latest event in the house saga has me feeling jostled around like a rider on a roller coaster -- up, down, lean left, lean right, and try and hold onto your lunch.

On Friday I was planning to cancel the old contract, transfer my escrow, and make a new offer on the purported house of my dreams. (Key word: purported.)

Then my realtor called with the latest development: the seller did not want to accept a new contract (and rightly so) because there is a problem with the house's title and they are not sure how long it could take to fix it. They may even have to take the house off the market while they figure things out.

At this point we don't even know what the problem is. But the mortgage meltdown is still having ripples and consequences and messing with the economy. (Big banks and greedy bankers and crazy buyers, I'm looking at you!)

Meanwhile . . . I have started looking at other houses again. We did some driving around yesterday afternoon and identified a handful of likely candidates. Maybe among them is one I can actually buy.

I hate to be a quitter, and I really, really love this house. But there's also that boring thing called reality. Even I know you can't buy a house that's not for sale, no matter how much you love it. And if you stay on too long, even the best roller coaster in the world stops being fun.