Safe and sound in the Ocean State

[ecosophia]

I'm sitting at the computer in an unfamiliar apartment crowded with boxes, and Sara's sound asleep two rooms away, which is probably a better choice of activity than mine just now. Around us, East Providence, Rhode Island, is dozing off, and no doubt I'll be doing the same thing too in a bit.

Yes, we've moved to Rhode Island: "that universal haven of the odd, the free, and the dissenting," in H.P. Lovecraft's well-turned phrase. Those who are concerned about global warming, as most of us should be, may want to know that our apartment is 82 feet above sea level, well back from the bluffs along the Seekonk River, so a good long ways above any point that'll face flooding in our lifetimes. We're within a few blocks of a library, a farmer's market, a post office, and an assortment of local businesses, with ample public transit and an assortment of other amenities.

I'll discuss the reasons behind the move in due time. I noted back when we moved to Cumberland, MD, in 2009, though, that we were betting on the Rust Belt; one thing to remember about bets is that sometimes you lose. Many of the things I was hoping to accomplish by that move didn't happen, and certain other things shifted in ways I hadn't expected -- in some cases, mind you, I was pleasantly surprised. So a regrouping and reorientation was called for, and here we are.

Comments

[jjensenii]

Glad to hear you made it safely! I hope this bet's a winner.

That said, don't rule out the Canadian ice fortress too quickly. The maple syrup is still calling you.

[oakmouse]

Canada wouldn't take me --- I'm disabled (birth defects plus old injuries) and have an incurable chronic autoimmune disease (celiac). Also both JM and I are technically senior citizens; he's 55, I'm 56. That makes us too old for Canada's preference in immigrants. I'm afraid the maple syrup will have to call in vain!

(This is Sara, by the way.)

Best of luck

[marcu]

Dear Mr. Greer,

Best of luck with the settling in process and unpacking. I look forward to hearing your reasoning behind the regrouping and reorientation. I even feel a bit buoyed by the fact that you have decided to live in an apartment. As a fellow apartment dweller I often feel like I somehow have less to contribute than somebody who has their own land to grown things on.

May your internet be fast and your water pressure high!

Ham Radio?

[(Anonymous)]

Does this mean you won't be able to set up your HF Ham Radio?

August Johnson KG7BZ

Re: Ham Radio?

[ecosophia]

I don't know yet. The gear is boxed for the time being, but there may well be options for using it as we proceed. In the meantime, I've got a 2 meter rig and a lot fewer hills in the way! ;-)

Re: Ham Radio?

[(Anonymous)]

I wish you well with your changes! Is your old email still working? I know you mentioned your USPS address would be forwarded. I'm still intending to write, things here have been real busy with lots of different things. Building more gardens, working with local HAM groups on emergency communications, etc. Sneaking in lots of mention of "Resilience" and so on, they just don't know what my motives are! I think I'm having a lot of influence in shaping their thinking!

August KG7BZ

Re: Ham Radio?

[ecosophia]

The old email still works, though you can also contact me at ecosophia (at) dreamwidth (dot) org -- this account comes with an email forwarder, which is nice. Glad to hear you've been busy! Given the mess the activists made o the peak oil and climate change movements, it's probably best to smuggle in resilience without explaining why, so you're ahead of the curve.

73, AD7VI

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG,

As someone who has moved with wretched frequency, I am quite familiar with that end-of-moving-day flop onto whatever object you can find. I'm glad you had the energy to fire up the computer and post. I am looking forward to hearing the reasons for your move, and I wish you and Sara well as you put down roots into new soil.

Kind regards,

Patrick

[malo14]

Happy to hear you are now enjoying that sense of relief experienced when you "get where you are going." Still a lot to do, but generally can proceed at a more comfortable pace than the packing up for the move.
Now to figure out what to do with the bubble wrap and boxes. Oh for the days when you could save the newspaper for a month and have plenty of newsprint for packing.

[(Anonymous)]

"Still a lot to do, but generally can proceed at a more comfortable pace than the packing up for the move."

A way more comfortable pace... I've still got stuff in boxes from my last move - that would be 25 years ago. No kidding! :-)

New beginnings

[(Anonymous)]

I like the new project JMG and the direction you are heading in. I look forward to the explanation in due course. I wish I had the confidence you have to undertake such dramatic changes of direction. Cheer, average joe

[auntlili]

Congratulations! Providence is a wonderful town. I've only been there once, but I found the place delightful. I wish you many happy years in your new home.

[migrantharvester]

Providence sounds like fun John Micheal! I hope you both are settling in well. I'm interested to learn more about your thinking for your move... I envy you being just a short train ride from the big city and all of its museums...

Lovecraft

[(Anonymous)]

Lovecraft would be pleased to have you there, JMG. Best of luck on this new phase of your endeavors.

Mac

Thank you!

[ecosophia]

All the good wishes are much appreciated. I think it's going to turn out to be a very good move, all things considered.

Congratulations

[joelcaris]

Hi JMG,

Congrats on the move. I hope you settle in well and it sounds like you landed somewhere nice. I actually have friends who moved to Providence some years back and they probably aren't too far away from you across the Seekonk River. I've wanted to visit them for a long time but haven't managed the task just yet. I avoid air travel as much as possible and haven't yet found enough time to visit by train, considering I'd need a good week for the round trip train travel alone, coming from Portland, Oregon. Perhaps someday.

I'm curious, if you care to answer, whether you've decided to move away from home ownership or if you just are waiting for the current housing bubble to pop before jumping back in? I'm guessing prices haven't gone quite as nutty in East Providence as in a lot of coastal cities, but I imagine they're far elevated from the post-2008 bottoming out, as well.

[(Anonymous)]

Best of luck settling in. I'm also very interested in your reasons for the move. I suspect many of us are trying to figure out how to live somewhere that's both affordable and doesn't require a long car commute. It seems like in the western U.S. that's now hard to do, especially while keeping one hand for the ship and one for yourself.

Congratulations, JM!

[pro_future_evangelist]

Delighted to hear that you're (sort of) moved into your new digs. Did you get the thumb drive I sent before you left?

Best wishes to you and Sara,

~ Michael (& Connie)

Re: Congratulations, JM!

[ecosophia]

Yep -- I simply haven't had time to field more than urgent emails since then.

Re: Congratulations, JM!

[pro_future_evangelist]

No doubt!

Congrats on the move!

[reveretaylor]

Congratulations on a successful move! Providence is a beautiful city, with much to interest a mind inclined towards things mythical and mysterious. I lived there as a very small child, which may have exaggerated some of the city's spooky qualities in my imagination. Perhaps that's part of why Lovecraft's work has always seemed oddly realistic to me. I'm looking forward to hearing more of what lead you to make a change. Enjoy the exploration! Check out Coffee Exchange, if you haven't already. An excellent old-school coffee shop, still there last I checked. It may satisfy whatever part of you is still a Seattleite!

Re: Congrats on the move!

[reveretaylor]

I've only been to East Providence once, slightly intoxicated and in search of the ultimate hot wieners. I'm not sure what H.P. thought of that particular Rhode Island delicacy.

[smwils1]

I'm not sure that I'd say you've left the Rust Belt. I'd always considered the Southern part of New England, including Conn, RI, and Mass to be part of the Northern Rust Belt, in that so many industries have left, first for the South, then overseas. I once read an article in Forbes that RI was considered to be one of the "worst" states in job creation/development, and I'd consider that high praise considering that Forbes is the epitome of the neoliberal, growth based BAU economy. So I'd say you're still in the Rust Belt, just a different part of it. Still, I'm devastated that you're becoming a Yankee, and moving to that detestable, unspeakable region. ;) New England is a dirty word in the once and future Confederacy! ;)

[smwils1]

Honestly, JMG, if you were moving to the Canadian Maritimes (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or Prince Edward Island), I'd think much more of you. God Save the Queen!

Greetings!

[ferngladefarm.blogspot.com.au]

Hi JMG,

Moving sucks. Hope the move went smoothly and that your new digs are more suitable for both you and Sara.

Did you know that the state that you now reside in was once part of the micro-continent Avalonia before the Iapetus ocean closed, according to some theories? Pretty interesting. 82 feet above sea level is a pretty tidy reserve. Antarctica is groaning.

Fun fact: I used to have a Rhode Island Red chicken. Six degrees of separation strikes again! :-)! The colour of that chicken really was as red as the ores in the island.

I look forward (with envy) to future reports on the various chowders available in your new digs.

Cheers

Chris

[kashtan]

Wow! I'm interested to hear how it works for you in RI. I didn't guess RI because the train schedule I looked at shows it as more than a 3 hr ride from NYC, but now I realize that I wasn't looking at the express line schedule. But here's the kicker, I lived if East Providence, RI for a bit when I was growing up. My family moved around a bunch whaen I was growing up and we lived in four different states. I lived in East Providence, Rumford to be exact, between when I was in fifth grade and my first year of high school, which was at East Providence high school.

I must admit that although I have some fond memories of certain things in Rhode Island, overall I have a negative impression of the place from my time there and never even considered wanting to live there again later, but much of that was I'm sure due to the ages of my life that I lived there. In my sophomore year of high school, my family took me back to the midwest where I quickly got into a much more comfortable situation, and except for a brief visit a few years later haven't been back since. I do wonder how the place has changed in the last twenty years. I'm sure you'll run into people I knew there, although I haven't been in contact with any of them for quite a while. I hope you have better luck adapting to the area than I did, and am looking forward to hearing your updates.

Safe and Sound....

[(Anonymous)]

Having 'resettled' myself on average about every five or six years across my lifetime, I understand your exhaustion - good luck on the move; may Providence be providential....

Apartment Living

[(Anonymous)]

Hi JMG,

Best wishes for life in your new digs.

While it will be interesting to learn about some of your reasons for moving, I hope you also will share some of the practical aspects of how you are living in your new urban neighborhood. Will you find an allotment somewhere to grow vegetables? How will you get out to commune with nature in a larger, tree-centric, natural area-focused sense? (Yes, I know well that nature is everywhere, but still.)

Of course apartment living can be very low carbon. neighborhood walkability and access to public transit themselves are important and part of the reason why I never left my own urban environment. Sharing some information about how you are living (nothing too personal, of course) might help those readers living in apartments themselves; it might give hope to those who dream of a smallholding, but can't quite make it there.

Best Regards,
Adrian (Ayres Fisher)

Welcome to Nuwinga!

[isaac_liebowitz]

Welcome! I am glad to have you as a neighbor (sort of - I am in the Lovecraftian forests of Western MA.). Your writings played a significant role in my decision to settle here, so I hope you and Sara find it amenable.

Welcome to RI!

[(Anonymous)]

I've been a faithful reader of your blogs and books for 10+ years, but have never commented until now. I grew up in East Providence, about 2 miles from your new apartment. I haven't been up that way in a while, since I now live in South Kingstown and we "Swamp Yankees" seldom venture north of The Towers without packing a lunch. Old joke, but mostly true as you will find. Anyway, it's a quirky state for sure but I think both you and Sarah will enjoy living here. Welcome!

Ruth

[samuraiartguy]

* Waving from Berkeley Springs *

Just want to say that the rust Belt is somewhat diminished with your departure. Happy landing!

Saying hello

[(Anonymous)]

Hi John Michael, we knew each other briefly during your Capitol Hill days in Seattle. I was about 19 or 20 at the time and am 45 now and so this was a good chunk of time ago. I'd joined a Hermetic discussion group that you and your wife were hosting at your apartment. You were pursuing a bachelors of magic at the University of Washington as I remember.

I was the long haired kid dragging a 3 ring binder to every meeting to jot down book titles, authors and topics that came up during discussion. I recall that met with some amusement from the group but I didn't care too much. Though the group was short lived, I derived a lot of useful thought, meditation and reading from the topics discussed.

I stumbled across your blog just today and was surprised to see that you landed in Providence, Rhode Island. Technically East Providence, I know, which is its own town with its own distinct feel or at least was when I was there.

I moved from Sedona, Arizona to Providence, RI about 12 or 13 years ago, on a lark, in the middle of winter, during a blizzard. I stayed for a season and while I enjoyed exploring the East Coast and really enjoyed the history, architecture and witchy feel of Providence, I found the people hard to approach and always felt an outsider in a town where some of the old timers that I met had never left the borders of their tiny state. I wonder if Providence is still so provincial?

I've tracked your literary progress here and there over the years though admittedly haven't read too much that you have written. I picked up a copy of Circles of Power many years ago, in Sedona I believe. It's strange how such a new age area such as Sedona was so magically adverse. Your book was one of just a few magically oriented texts on the shelves of the new age bookstores. I always got the sense that New Agers feared anything that smacked of real magic which I found strange.

I'm now in Portland, Oregon where I have been for a number of years but do miss the Seattle of yester-year. Perhaps it was my youth but it seemed so much more magical than other places I've hung my hat, including Portland. During that time period, there were a number of good occult bookstores, apothecaries and magically oriented folk all about. Robert's Edge of the Circle Books which he purchased from Sierra was one of my favorite haunts when I'd visit Seattle. The only store that I feel topped it was the original Shamanic Convergence due solely to the sheer volume of books and obscure titles.

A quick googling shows that Robert is still in business though has moved Edge of the Circle Books from Capitol Hill to the University District. I'm glad that he has managed to make this work for so many years.

Sorry for the ramble down memory lane but couldn't resist saying hello. All the best to you and Sara which coincidentally is also my wife's name with the same spelling.

Best,
Adam