Like Dorothy Parshall I live in more than one place. The rented 3-family PA house has provided furnishings for the 1-story, small 3-bedroom/1-bath Ohio house purchased in Dec. 2013 as an eventual retirement home near family. (Until retirement it's set up as a work camp for home improvement and vacations.) I visit that house 3-4 times a year to work on it and start getting to know folks and ease into the rich local music scene.

The trip which ends this week (I leave on trash day after bringing trashbins back in) focused on landscape prep and measurement for ongoing garden design, on installing kutchen cabinet hardware, and on making offline friends, as well as completing the establishment of a social justice library (books, films), and reviewing those. I've read almost a dozen uni level texts while here and created discussion questions for several key films. I've also been invited to join both the Diocesan antiracism training group and a choir at a local multicultural parish.

This trip was extended far longer than planned for several reasons and while here I've discovered I probably have a failing gallbladder. So Thursday, with various friends abd family helping, I'll start limping home.

The next trip will NOT include a cargo trailer. Most everything we need here for years to come is here now and anything else can ride in the van or on the cargo platform that rudes on the hitch.

Probably the best personal highlight has been next door neighbor Portia, whose community of origin is farm country with the values we've been adopted into in PA these last 20 years. Her presence and friendship have been a haven from the too-fast/too-shallow urban culture here, making a good bridge to joining that without losing what we could add to it in simpler perspectives.

I return to a house I left cleaner and neater than it has been for many years. When I'm rested up I have a bathroom to paint and re-floor.

~Susan