punkinhead

Just moved to Salem MA - what an adventure!

Hello SG Friends and Neighbors,

I hope this finds you all well and good.

Well its been quite a long time since I have posted. And Oh! what changes have happened in my life.

My wife got a job offer in Salem MA. She had been out of work for a few months after her lab got defunded, so this was a real blessing. Difficulty: they wanted her to start in six weeks.

But we made it. I drove two trips - one in a Uhaul, with the missus and all of our stuff. The stuff went to storage, the missus stayed with a good friend for a few days while I went home, finished training my replacement at work, and did the million things one needs to do before one moves across country.

My second trip was in our car with Bacchus the Dog, Vindaloo the Cat, and my intrepid house plant Special Control Group. That was something, let me just tell you. Bacchus pretty much slept, Vindaloo was loosing her mind in her cat carrier and mewed the whole way, and poor SCG was wilting before my eyes. But we made it in great time and now its two weeks later and Bam! Just like that I live in Massachusetts, seven weeks after the missus got the the email saying "You are hired!"

Salem is interesting. When I first moved here I thought, I have never lived any place like this before in my life. But I was wrong. Salem is a lot like New Orleans, on a smaller scale. Historic and touristy, moneyed and ghetto, cultured and crass. Its even another waterfront city. Swap out witchcraft and clam chowder for boobies and crawfish etouffee and one could stand for the other.

So far I love it here. The one real negative - we don't have air conditioning, and I am having a hard time sleeping. But like they say, Winter is Coming.

So next week is GenCon! I am driving up on Tuesday. If you are going, swing by the Fat Dragon booth and I will sign a book for you. Like, any book, doesn't even have to be one I wrote.

Anyway, more as it happens. Be well, enjoy yourself.

take it light,

ph

Taoist Thought for the Day: The acetic who rejects the world to find inner peace and enlightenment is doing nobody any favors, least of all himself. If you don't believe that the Tao lives on 49th and 9th street then you do not understand the Tao, nor what it means when we say the word "Tao."

Pet Report: Bacchus took the move more or less in stride. He slept through the drive up, and once he got her he was overjoyed to see the missus and have the whole family in the same place once again. The few difficulties he has registered so far - getting up and down our steep, narrow stairway, and having to use the bathroom in a mostly concrete city chief amongst them - he more or less grew past in the first week. I am very proud of the old boy. VIndaloo too - she freaked out during the entire ride here, mewing and scratching and generally worrying herself into a real state. The first day in the new apartment was no better - she more or less followed us around the whole day, crying and carrying on. Then she took some time to explore and discovered that our new place, an apartment in a 200 year old building, was full of hiding places, wide windowsills that let her look out at the town and flying seagulls, and sunbeams. She loves it now, and seems really happy to be here.



Currently Digging: Salem,