Hey, Steve.

When I left Oregon for Atlanta, most of my things were packed away, not to be seen until I settled somewhere (18 months later, it turned out, topic for another day). I could take whatever fit in my trusty 2013 Subaru Legacy. I was in the driver’s seat, and Zeke and his things took most of the passenger seat. Even with most of my sports equipment in storage, space was at a premium. There were a few things I truly needed, and I had space to bring a few touches of home, things that would help make wherever I was feel comfortable. One of those familiar touches was my collection of hats, which has only grown since those nomadic Atlanta days.  I think about my hats often – it’s a fun choice to start each workday and many weekends – but I didn’t think to write about them until February, so I’ll start with the hat that inspired this post. Newark Eagles This is the first hat I can recall buying and not immediately wearing. I picked them because of a hometown(ish) connection, Newark be...

About a month ago, my wife had a work event in Central Virginia, so we used it as enough of a reason to visit Charlottesville. I went to UVA and have tons of fond memories of my time there, and I really enjoyed the city itself, so I often went back. For myriad reasons, I hadn’t been back since a quick jaunt for the Messiah Sing-In in 2017. [Yes, this Jew loves that event. It’s not the music itself, but the event is magical. I joined virtually one year, and I’ll be back at some point.] As we met in 2019, my wife had never been to Charlottesville. We had a lovely time – wandering the city market and Downtown Mall, seeing the various places I lived, and eating very, very well (see this new WEDS post for more). I had to work hard not to fall into too much nostalgia while touring Grounds; our options were to stop at each place for 5 minutes (quick tour) or 5 hours (wave of memories and stories). I spared her that fate. I say that all as context for what happened this past week, when I we...

I started writing this after the announcement about the USDA relocation plan . The link is light on details and heavy on gaslighting, so read at your own peril. I’m working on another post about that, including the letter I’m writing to USDA and my representatives, but for the purposes of this post and launching this effort, it boils down to this: They are planning to move over 2,600 of the 4,600 DC-area USDA employees out of the National Capital Region. They are vacating the building I’ve been working in since February. This does not necessarily mean that my job is moving. Details are essentially nonexistent, but the intent (read: threat) is clear. My job might move. So, I’ll state it plainly: I am not moving. This experience and other related ones started me thinking about dogsleds. About eight and a half years ago, in the middle of a breakdown, I started to really put words into an internal framework that helped me understand why I was unraveling what to do about it. The metapho...