Moving back to Michigan

Nearly ten years ago Susan and I put our house in Vermont on the market, our stuff in storage, dropped our car off with Dick and Dorothy in Massachusetts and headed off to Italy. We had no particular goal in mind in the fall of 2005, although as it happened Susie decided she wanted to go to pastry school. So we moved to Florence then to Paris and the rest, as they say, is history.

Well, we're about to do something very much like that again.

I have given notice at work -- my last day in the office will be April 24 and then we're off to Michigan. Our next steps are vague with little form to them yet but we hope our future will take a more definitive shape as we slide into the spring and summer.

Now some will want to argue that winters are much more serious if not downright brutal in Michigan, particularly western Michigan given the wonders of lake-effect snow. True enough as we can see right here:

photo by Tom Gill for the Huffington Post

Still, this winter has been among the worst we've experienced since living in Providence -- the city lacks the wherewithal, both financial as well and motivational to remove the snow or even to plow it correctly so most of the streets have been clogged to the point of rendering many thoroughfares effectively one-way.

And the inability or unwillingness to maintain the infrastructure has result in monumental holes in the pavement as well as sinkholes around many manhole covers. I could go on but you get the point. It's not so great here in the winter either.

We'll certainly keep everyone posted. . .