Dear Reader,

Apologies for denying you your need to Press Pause for so long. Please know, this time the extended Pause was not the result of lethargy or a lack of profundity deserving of your consideration.

It was due to a 5.8 mile move which, I am very happy to report, is largely in the rearview mirror.

TL/DR. . . I got my ass kicked every which way by The Move. Which begs an obvy question, why did I voluntarily sign on for unprecedented levels of stress?

Because one can only take so much of . . .

The Salish Sea. The Olympic Mountains. Eagle fly-bys. Water-slapping seals. Even directionally-challenged whales. Enough nature already.

In the end, all the nature just got to be too much for the GalPal to bear. And so, a few months ago, she sayeth, “Let’s live among the people. In town.”

To which I said, “Okay, let’s.”

Tonight, our first Saturday in the new hood, we ate among the people. After dropping the Good Wife off at the restaurant, and then parking, I returned to the restaurant via this alley.

Slow your roll. One setting is not inherently “better” than the other. Just different. The old hood was completely bereft of street art, any real weirdness to speak of, and rabbits outnumbered people.

Time to lean into the back alleys, the street art, the urban mess, the grit. This is my life with The Good Wife. Among the people.