So, where to start?
I’m reminded of that Newhart episode where they reveal that the entire series was a dream, and he wakes up in bed with his wife from his FIRST series…
Okay, I’m glad OD is back but it’s sort of bittersweet. I’m weird, I would never remove the OD shortcut from my bookmarks and I was careful to not ever click on it because I wanted the old OD icon to stay there and not the “page not found”. Yet now that it’s back I’m not sure if it will ever feel like home for me again. I had sort of lost my Writing Muse a long time before the site went on hiatus but there is a lot of me scattered all over this page and it’s difficult to let go.
What’s new, you ask? Well, this Southern boy is living in New England. I was laid off from my former job on February 29, 2016 but was fortunate enough to find another job doing firearm suppressor R&D. The job was in Southeastern New Hampshire which was a real leap of faith for me since I had never lived further north than Greensboro, NC before this move. So we moved up here and I truly love the area! The people are amazing and the winters aren’t horrible. In the interest of full disclosure I do rent in a neighborhood of detached condos and the condo association hires snow removal and lawn care so the only thing I have to shovel is a space for the chihuahua to do her business and occasionally the drive if the snow removal service is running late. I bought His and Hers Honda CR-Vs with all wheel drive and I mount snow tires in the winter which helps but the road crews also do a fantastic job here. I have a 30+ mile commute to work each way so it’s a good thing they keep the roads passable. The one thing that’s difficult for me to adapt to is the low angle of the sun in the winter, it’s starting to get dark by 3:30 PM in December and January.
One surprising thing for me is how active and competitive the local racing scene is. I have one track that’s less than 5 miles from my office, another track that’s about 6 miles further, and I drive down to Seekonk, MA, Thompson, CT, and Stafford, CT whenever I can. I had forgotten how much I loved having local weekly racing to attend, it’s probably a good thing I’m too old to race again!