Here we are...

Courtesy of Terraserver, here's an aerial photo of the new casa de Ragamuffin. The white area to the left (under construction when the satellite photo was taken in 2000) is now a completed second development of condos. The area to the right is a golf course, and the area up top is a field which was part corn and part soybeans this year.

Yup - it's pretty rural.

But while we're 22 miles from downtown Toledo, we're only 4 miles from downtown Maumee, where fast food, video rentals, and big-box shopping is available. So it's really the best of both worlds.

Life has been particularly insane this last twelve days. The challenge of trying to fit two households' goods into one two-bedroom condo, and deciding what to keep/store/toss, has taken more work than I (or anyone else) expected.

(Hell, everything about this move has taken more work and more time than I expected...) And the last week at work rather peaked the insane-o-meter (or is it "insane-OM-eter"?) with an incredible barrage of technical FUBARSs and new items getting set up which went almost completely wrong. My sister is not doing well physically, and that ain't good, to be sure.

:::sigh:::

But there are lots of positives.

I'm here, and able to support my sister. And there's an incredibly powerful set of realizations there. If life had gone "my way," I would be just getting back to school in Chicago after a year-long internship, with no appreciable income. My sister and brother-in-law would likely be on their way to losing their home. And I'd be spending time in a city with whom I had (at best) a love-hate relationship, dealing with street bums and horrific roads and an hour-plus commute.

The "spare bedroom/den" I'm in is sunny, bright, reasonably weather-resistant, and considerably bigger than my living room and dining room in Pullman combined. Even on rainy days like today, the scene through my half-moon window is clear and light. The high-speed internet connection means I have a better link to my data at work than some folks at work have.

As I've shared with other friends, there is a vast difference between "Chicago miles" and "Toledo miles." Sunday night, I went to an AA meeting just northwest of downtown - a journey of 16 miles - and it took 25 minutes. Living out in the country, I can pull out of the neighborhood onto Stitt Rd. (the horizontal line at the top of the photo) and sometimes wait 2 or 3 minutes to see another car go by.

I'm a long way from settled - there are things I'm still hunting for, including some things I need to send back to friends in Chicago. Getting a truck to move the rest of the stuff to storage this weekend will help - but it's definitely feeling more like home. My sister is finding blessing in having me here, and I'm slowly renewing old friendships and making new ones.

It's a different way of living, here. But it feels right. It feels like home.