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Well, after a rocky couple of years I return to Gaia to find it... substantially the same as always, although some sections have been added and the whole thing seems to run smoother (with the exception of Towns, but that's par for the course, Towns has never been my friend. New Idea for the Millenium: Having finally gotten into an area that supports it, Dial Up Rawx.)

The end of last year brought an unexpected Xmas gift.. a house. Finally got to move into a real house as opposed to the sandwich box laughingly called an apartment that I had been in. Now, mind you, when I first moved into it it was a nice place. But circumstances changed. How changed? Well, all the power outlets on one side of the kitchen/dining area quit working. Refrigerator started leaking-- internally, not externally-- requiring you to cover food up watertight or risk a truly bad reaction (heaves for 5 hours. Not fun). Bedroom light developed a short and would not come on. Air conditioner leaked cold water into the hallway. And all this can be yours for the price of... no maintenance! As in 'sorry, we can't do anything about that.'

Well, I suppose they could have rewired the place, but they did in fact flat out tell me the most they could do about the A/C was vacuum the water up for free.

I'll take the house, thanks, with the commute to work, occasional invasion by wood roaches, and old-style windows that are not particularly well weatherstripped.

Want to know why?

Because I have a back yard, now, tiny as it may be, and there is a huge oak tree shading it. I can sit on my equally tiny back porch and listen to the wind whispering secrets to the leaves. The sound of the nearest road is a background drone rather than a matter of yards away, and yesterday I watched a woodpecker in the mimosa tree.

Sometimes-- and I ask you to think about this one carefully-- sometimes it's the silences between the noise of life that are worth the most.