Putting this blog to bed

It's too cold this morning to post from the front porch, but it has become my favorite hangout. Instead I am writing from my chair in my bedroom. The same chair I sat it way back that winter when I hung out at Maureen's house and set the goal to have a chair and a corner just that. So when she gave me the chair, I found the corner and it's my cold weather place as the sun crosses from the south to the west all winter long. Thank you, Maureen!

This final post has weighed on my mind and I thought I was ready to write it all year long, but I never had the just right words. So I am simply going to write it.

The boat year (10 months on a boat is the same to me as a whole year) was an experience that I thank Kurt for that from time to time. It taught me mostly that all kinds of people have all kinds of other ways of living. Owning my own home and having my own yard and decorating my own way is not by any means THE way of living life. Boats, RVs, couch surfing, communal living, renting, barely surviving are all ways to live life. Not one of them anymore is superior to the other. The boat taught me that.

I sometimes really do miss living actually on the water. The rocking to sleep, the bare separation from the seasons, the waterfowl, the middle finger raised to all the expectations and the extra money. I miss the extra time with no chores. I miss reading during that extra time. I miss the travel.

When we bought this house, I said we'd live here till you carried me out in a pine box. Maybe. But now there is a little tiny part of me that could sell this thing, sail to the Caribbean and hang out there all wrinkled and buried in saltwater and books.

Till that happens, I love our little house in the country. I love our new to us old chocolate labs. I love my kids coming to visit. I love having friends and family over. I don't mind the commute too terribly. And I love the world my love and I are creating.

Thanks for reading. Consider this blog tucked in and lights out.

Alison