I drove through Sterling today on my way into Moosup, to take a look at my old house. It has recently been renovated and put back on the market, and according to the “Sale Pending” sign out by the street has found a new owner. The place looks good, and since there was clearly no one living there quite yet I drove into the driveway and took a look around. I couldn’t really tell if Jazzy recognized the place at all, though she was sniffing around the yard where she lived from when she was a little puppy until she was five years old or so. I may have missed any signs of recognition, as I was a bit distracted by my own remembrance of good times. It really is a beautiful area, and I loved living there. But then again, I’ve loved all my residences since then too. Cranston was a very special place for a lot of reasons, and being near the ocean in Westerly was perfect for me to slowly find a new path after falling so fast. Now I’m here in Cumberland and it feels like a mix of those places, and instantly comfortable. I’m still near water, though now it’s a river instead of an ocean. I’m near the woods like I was in Sterling, and there’s a lot of space for Jazzy, yet I’m still near everything like I was in Cranston. I really don’t know where I’ll go from here when the time comes. My life isn’t even close to being predictable enough to even guess such a thing. But wherever it is, I’m sure it will be a beautiful place. I’m far too spoiled now to settle for anything less.

P.S. By the way, I took this picture of the tree I planted back in 2000. It’s now one of the tallest trees in the neighborhood despite being less than a decade old. It’s a hybrid poplar I bought from a little catalog and planted when it was just a stick with one leaf at the top and a few spindly roots. 

So today I put Operation Distraction into action. For the past couple of weeks I’ve been almost entirely consumed by math and teaching, and I needed to decompress. So this morning Jazzy and I did a little exploring and drove up to Attleboro to see how far away the Emerald Square Mall is from our new flat (answer: only a few minutes). Of course, Jazzy didn’t get to go into the mall, but that wasn’t too bad for her since I was only in there for a few minutes anyway, despite checking out all three levels. It turns out that there are almost no stores in a mall these days that interest me. Back when I was a kid I loved to go to toy stores to check for new videogames, Radio Shack for computer stuff, and book stores for magazines about video games and computers. But these days I have little reason to stop in these stores. I still love book stores, but much prefer the supersized stand-alone versions. If a mall has an Apple store (Emerald Square does not) I’ll head in there even though I don’t need a new computer, phone or software. In fact, part of my problem with shopping in general is that I just don’t need anything. I have all the stuff I need, and could easily live without most of what I already have. Anyway, back to Operation Distraction. After we drove down the road to check out the rest of the stores on the strip, I called Larry and set up a game of golf. So after a quick stop at our new place, Jazzy and I headed out again and went off to Somerset. Then, after 9 holes of golo (golf joke), we stopped to see the second tallest cow in the world. The tallest one is in the UK, but this one is almost as tall. This photo definitely doesn’t do it justice - it was actually very impressive. The final part of Operation Distraction is writing this post - I was doing some work before it and will go right back to work as soon as I’m finished. So in the end Operation Distraction was only moderately successful, which for some reason reminds me of Futurama: “We have you partially surrounded!” Perhaps it’s a bit of delirium setting in...

Today I finally got the place straightened up a bit, so here is a little video tour of my new flat. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep the furniture situated as it is now, and I have some additional decorating to do, but it already feels like home to me and to Jazzy. 

Here are some exterior shots of my new home. I’ll post pics of the inside once I get my place organized...

This is the front of the building, which is called the “Rail side” since we have a view of the trains that go by. My apartment is on the first floor of this side.

Here is the river side, which features a wide walkway with chairs. A great place to relax. The next pic is of the two bridges that cross the river. The walking bridge leads to a walking/biking path, which features a big field just across the river from the mill where I play fetch with Jazzy.

I have a new home! And so far I love it here. Jazzy is acclimating very well, fortunately, and I think we’ll be very comfortable once we’re fully settled. Okay, back to unpacking boxes. Actual pics to come soon...