What a difference a week makes...it's the week before Halloween, and already there is that "WTF are we doing in Siberia?" effect. Really - what WERE we thinking when we moved here from a place were there are palm trees and your geraniums aren't turned into unrecognizable mush when the first hard freeze hits in mid-October?

Ah well, the question now is: where to go next? I do think we want to consider turning some of our electron assets into tillable dirt, where the climate allows at least subsistence farming (as in a kitchen garden and henhouse) pretty much year-round. Whether this might be in Mexico or some part of the US that has the elusive combination of civilized climate and affordability (and a socio-economic-political environment that isn't too scary) is hard to say at the moment.

I do worry that the US economy (and as a result the above-mentioned s-e-p environment) is teetering on a precipice over a vast canyon of previously unimaginable hazard. Perhaps people have always worried thus, but I can't help but believe that any reasonable empirical analysis justifies alarm.

I find myself struggling to stay positive and not obsess over little things gone wrong now that there is not daily job routine for a while, but overall it is the preferred arrangement for the time being. The Mdog is aging so fast, I want to spend time with her, and it seems there is no end to the necessary or elective activities that fill most days. The biggest challenge is just to make the most of life day-to-day until we figure out where we are supposed to go from here.

It won't be someplace where you need a snow shovel or a windshield ice scraper.

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