why keep writing.
Back to the blog.https://chosenfugue.xyz/2023/03/12/what-have-we-just-done-again/
It’s all a fugue. A year slips by, and a few more months, maybe almost two years. Patricia says we need to blog, people were left hanging with us still in Northern Italy in late Feb 2023 https://chosenfugue.xyz/2023/04/27/milano-dog-ciao/
A year and a few months, maybe more than two years. Time seems ill defined pandemic adjacent, less focused, less describable. More forgotten, what did we do? It’s all a fugue.
The Timeline. After Milan, we stopped in Lisbon for Patricia to buy shoes and for us to grab an inexpensive TAP flight back to the US. With no home to return to, https://chosenfugue.xyz/2023/03/12/what-have-we-just-done-again/ we just continued to pet sit.
https://chosenfugue.xyz/2023/03/12/sitting-part-2-animals-animals-animals/ https://chosenfugue.xyz/2023/03/12/sitting-part-1-location-location-location/
An adorable kitten in Medford MA that liked to perch on our shoulders, chubby cats in rural Leverett MA , exuberant King Charles Spaniels in Eugene OR, dogs who liked to watch TV in Vancouver WA, we fell in love with a giant Bernadoodle in Eugene OR and a were a little afraid of a Cujo-pit-lab mix on maximum dose steroids in Minneapolis.
After finishing these Trusted Housesitter sits https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/refer/RAF531870/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=refer-a-friend&utm_campaign=refer-a-friend we moved into grand-parent mode; watching Finn, Pip and Posy (grand-dogs/cats) for two months in Amherst Mass while daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter went to Helsinki for the summer.
A New England summer of sweat and tick avoidance was followed by a sit in Olympia, with a dog who rang a bell to go outside (a lot!) while we tried to find a house and settle down. That did not work . We unsuccessfully tried to buy a house four times; were outbid three times and when we were not outbid, but it did not work out when inspection revealed a buried oil tank! So, we found a 6 month rental in Olympia where we slept in the kitchen because Patricia was allergic to the new carpet. That did not work out.
In retrospect, that was good. Things happen for a reason, or not, things do work out, eventually.
With homeownership tossed aside, we headed back to the Amherst family to sit again while they prepared for a move to Liverpool. We tossed in some trips during the 2 month move prep just to go away to reduce their level of irritation with us.
Watched a dog in New Haven CT and had some of the famous New Haven pizza- good but not as good as Marseille’s Pizza Charly (still the best-https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/10/travel/marseille-france-pizza.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sE8.88Mv.AOPK9yMFmRKV&smid=url-share). Then we headed up to Canada with a worthwhile stop at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. We enjoyed 2 fun dogs in Kingston Ontario (why Kingston, who knows), 2 good cats in suburban Ottawa, CA and a great hound-dog in an empty U Mass dorm in Amherst.
Finally, they moved to the UK and we went West: a few random dog and cat sits in LA, a summer painting our brother-in-law’s house in Santa Barbara, more cute cats in Oakland CA and then a visit to Mendocino, CA ( llamas!).
Maybe almost two years have passed. 15 cats, 21 dogs, 1 bird and 4 llamas. We went from knowing what we couldn’t do, to not knowing what we could do. In this maybe almost two years we helped people move from Minneapolis to Seattle, Mendocino to Caspar and Amherst to Liverpool. We slept in cars, in rented apartments, on daughters’ couches, in a house being remodeled, on airbeds, floors, hotels, and in stranger’s houses while we watched their pets. We drop in people’s lives and live a short story, enjoy the moment and turn the page. It’s all a fugue, did I say that already?
We write to remember.
Now where are we in the book? Back to the travelogue. A month in Reno, dog-sitting and campaigning for Harris/Walz, we were feeling so optimistic…. then we were horrified. It did not work out.
We left November 6th, the day after the election for Liverpool, initially following the granddaughter migration.
But, when life feels existential the only place to go is France the home of existentialism. Oui, oui, non?
So, rejoin our travels on our bike-less Tour de France, rucking, “hang it up and see what tomorrow brings”
Chosen Fugue 