A particularly potent “Heather Cox Richardson from Letters from an American” this morning:

Greenville home is under contract, appraised, inspected. The buyers will get the inspector’s report soon, and then we’ll negotiate what we’ll do before the closing. As the buyers are, literally, our next-door neighbors, they’re very familiar with the area, and have a pretty good sense of this home. And, thankfully, our other next-door neighbor is a former builder, and is willing to work on any issues within his abilities, which are broad-ranging. So, it’ll mostly be a matter of negotiating an agreement between what the buyers want and what we’re willing to do (not much).

We close the deal on the Raleigh place next Thursday. Last week was the inspection on that place, and two days later a “new home orientation...

A lovely, albeit brief, visit with Jackson, Cristin, and Joe, as they make their way south for a visit to Cristin’s folks in Florida for a few weeks. It’s been a nice 36 hours with them, and have enjoyed the respite from all-consuming moving-related things.

This weekend I’m trying on the role of real estate agent, it seems. Pattie out of town at niece’s graduation from nursing school (yay Hannah!) in Lander, Wyoming, so I’m the sole ‘agent’ on duty this weekend. One showing yesterday, and a few (so far) scheduled for today, so the house is clean and ready for anyone.

And here comes the first appointment of the day right now, so I’m off.

Back later with more updates about Raleigh planning…

It’s been weeks since I’ve logged in here, weeks since time has allowed for the reflection this space offers.

In these weeks my family has grown to include two new children–welcome to the world Asher Widlanski (3/29) and Ellery Powers Loverme (3/22)!–and the announcement of Cristin/Joe anticipating the arrival of Jackson’s younger brother ~October 2.

And Pattie and I will relocate to Raleigh in about 7+ weeks. For a few years now we’ve been searching for an approach to family needs, largely wanting to ease any potential issues that arise during the aging process...

Still struggling to catch up with lots of things, and this blog is falling way behind. First, a little mosaic of Jackson and his reading progression…

Very exciting news for us, to say the least.

The other news involves a move for Pattie and I. Lots of components to the story, but the bottom line is that we’ll relocate to Raleigh in early/mid-June, with Pattie’s mom to join us in the months following. Lots to do between now and then, of course, not the least of which is packing up this Greenville home and preparing it for a sale...

So very much to update, but today we’ll just go with the most important element.

First, our Jackson (and his folks) is loving the spring temps, enjoying lunch with his best buddies at the Bronx Zoo.

Then, a great way to make an announcement…

A day at the Bronx Zoo for this animal lover!

So nice to hear from friends, colleagues, and former students in response to posts about the recordings coming out. Chris Grymes doing a great job of getting the word out, largely using FaceBook and his OpenGRecords.com site, where he’s a beautiful design to attract the reader.

Perhaps one of the best treats was a phone call from a student from my first years here at ECU. Bill’s a bass player and just a guy who’s curious about lots of things. He’d taken some classes with me, then wanted more so signed up for an independent study in electronic music–to learn, but also to just hang and talk. He lost his dad while in school, and it was very difficult for him; I was able to easily relate...