Winter is Fading

I’ve been remiss about keeping up with this blog – mea culpa. No real excuses other than being tired a lot, between the traveling and working.

The traveling does continue to be fun, though. We’ve basically done the perimeter of the continental United States – we started in Oregon, then went through Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, up into Ontario and Quebec in Canada, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and we’ll be getting back to Oregon later today.

Obviously we stayed in some of those locations longer than others, and a few were effectively drive-bys just long enough to be able to count them. Still, not a bad range to do over 7 months – 29 states and 2 provinces. And we’re not done – we’re going to spend a few weeks in Portland to see friends and do some preparations, and then we’re heading east again, this time cutting more through the center of the country. (At this point I just need to visit Alaska to have done all 50 states – Simone has more to visit, but is rapidly catching up with this trip.)

Doing the perimeter of the country worked well for us – it meant that as the weather started to get cold in the northeast, we were able to cut south and enjoy far more temperate climes for the winter (though we did still bump into the cold spell here and there, and even snow in both New Mexico and Arizona – you don’t think of the southwest as being snowy, but the northern parts of both states are high enough in elevation that they do actually get a fair bit of snow).

California is quite a bit greener than it has been in past visits – even LA was looking pretty lush. This is in large part due to the heavier rain and snow the state has received the past two winters. I’d love to believe that the shift will continue and maybe they’ll finally get out of perpetual drought conditions, but the cynic in me sees it more as building up more tinder for when the wildfires come again. Regardless, I appreciate seeing it right now.

I’ll try to update my gallery soon, but in the meantime, you can sort of see the ongoing travelogue on my Instagram.

October in New England

Here we are, halfway through October. It’s been a bit over a month since my last post. In that time, we spent more time in Peterborough, New York City, Newport (Vermont), and Holderness. We socialized, we saw friends, saw family, had a good time. It’s starting to get cooler out, and we’re currently far enough north that the leaves have begun dropping in earnest.

Continue reading “October in New England”

On the Road Again

The short version is that Simone and I (and Cecil!) have put most of our belongings in storage, and have begun a grand sojourn around the country, with plans to stop at various destinations for anywhere from a few weeks to a few months at a time. Our first destination is Vermont, and we plan to be there for most of the fall (at least September and October, we’ll see beyond that). (Doesn’t mean the whole time will be Vermont – we’re definitely planning some day trips to other parts of New England, and a weekend in New York City to see a few friends. But it is where we plan to have our base of operations for the fall!)

The how is actually pretty straightforward: my job is very remote friendly, so barring the occasional travel day, I can do my job anywhere with a semi-decent internet connection. And Simone is in a remote-friendly graduate program, so again, nothing to hold us in one spot. So if you have that freedom, why not make use of it? I’m still working through all of this, which is also an interesting experiment, to see how I do keeping up with work while traveling. (And yes, they’re aware that I’m doing this and have my boss’s blessing.) Continuing to get paychecks certainly makes the traveling a lot easier!

Looking down an embankment to a gently flowing river. The water is clear with a slightly blue tint to it. Pines run up the embankment on the other side, with a blue sky behind.
Continue reading “On the Road Again”

2023

Happy New Year and all that. It’s now 2023, arguably an auspicious year in Discordianism, and hopefully a good year for the rest of us as well. I’m currently in Palm Springs with Simone, having spent the past few days wandering around and enjoying the desert while it’s not quite so murderously hot. (It’s even raining! How novel!) We had a nice wander through Joshua Tree National Park yesterday, and are having a nice relaxing New Year’s Day.

On Park Boulevard in Joshua Tree National Park, looking out at Turkey Flats and Pinto Mountain in the distance.
Joshua Tree National Park
Continue reading “2023”

Austin, and also Fires

I’m in Austin this week, in town for a team gathering for work. The docs team where I work is distributed fairly broadly, so we try to meet up occasionally in person, though the past few years we’ve been unable to due to the pandemic (our last in-person gathering was January 2020, right before covid started messing with things). One of the fun things about being distributed is that there’s plenty of excuse to host the meetup in different areas – last time was Grenoble, France, this time it’s Austin, Texas. Next one, maybe we’ll do San Francisco, or pop out to Bristol – who knows?

I’ve had a pretty decent writing streak this month on here, so I’m going to try and continue that while I’m in Austin, but we’ll see. I will say, one bummer of this trip was looking out the window on the flight out and seeing the forest fires hitting just north of Portland:

My thoughts are definitely with the folks caught in the crosshairs of that fire. There’ve been strong winds in the Portland area the past few days, and I can only imagine that’s been wreaking havoc on controlling the fire. Fingers crossed they actually get some rain soon.

Why Canadian Thanksgiving

I often wish people a happy Canadian Thanksgiving (which is today!), which prompts a fair number of responses of “Oh, are you Canadian?” And then puzzled looks when I say that no, I’m not. SO, here’s a brief explanation:

  1. My family has a summer house on the lake in New England (I’ve mentioned it frequently on here, so this should surprise no one). That house is not winterized, so while it’d be great to host American Thanksgiving there, that’s too late in the year, far too cold out, and the house needs to be closed up and the water turned off well before then. Canadian Thanksgiving, however, is in early-mid October, which is a lovely time to be at the lake, and a reasonable time to have one last shindig before shutting down for the winter. That’s basically why my family started celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving (we also do the American one, because why not have two turkey days). When I moved to the west coast, however, I couldn’t afford to fly back for the big family gathering. So we started hosting our own, inviting friends and cooking up some tasty food.
  2. I may not be Canadian, but I do have friends and family who are, so why not celebrate with them?
  3. There is the added benefit of doing a little harvest-festival gathering, too, instead of Columbus Day (because seriously, fuck that guy). It’s a nice well-wishing event, and much more neighborly. (There’s also Indigenous People’s Day today, which is also a worthwhile replacement.)

So, yeah. I highly encourage others to also get in on the action — any excuse to get people together to break bread and be sociable is a good one in my book.

And Just Like That, It Was October

Rabbit Rabbit, y’all.

The usual apologies for not posting more frequently – it was certainly something I thought about, but just wasn’t in the mental headspace to do it. Some days the fields are a harvest, and some days they’re fallow. Both are important, though I feel better when it’s the former.

Vermont foliage, in the hills near Starksboro
Continue reading “And Just Like That, It Was October”