(Howell Creek Radio address for March 1, 2013 -- ) # One Mile We've had a fair amount of company over to stay at our place over the last couple of months, guests in our house. It's one of those very grown-up sensations, to have people sit down in tall chairs around _your_ kitchen counter, and to offer them a cup of your own brewed coffee in one of the mugs from your own dining set, and know that they will be resting under your roof that night. It's only been just lately that I've felt myself slipping and settling into my new life role, one which I suppose I sought after unconsciously for years: the role of middle-class landed proprietor. Now, the land in question is tiny, and until recently, the middle-class part felt kind of tenuous, like I had it on loan, and might be required to give it back one day soon. I know a lot of people have felt that way. * * * Many's the time I sat back and imagined what Trixie and I would do if we lost the house. How's that for positive thinking? Those scenarios were a real mixed bag. We both put a lot of hard hours into this house, and so did many of our longsuffering friends, so it would be a shame and almost a tragedy if we lost it in the end. On the other hand, if one were to take the forward-looking approach, shedding the house would in fact be seen to open up immense possibilities. Trixie and I covered a good deal of ground over the US and Canada last year, and nearly everywhere we went, at some point we uttered the phrase "I wouldn't mind living here." Without a mortgage payment, a skilled young couple can probably make just about anything work, as far as I can tell. Now, we're not going to lose the house. But I've been restless and things at my job have been kind of up in the air. I've done a lot of thinking about whether I want to continue crunching numbers for a living. * * * I realized recently what I envy about many of the personalities I follow on the internet: the writers, the publishers, the web designers, the software engineers, the graphic designers. It's not just that their enterprises are creative ones; it's that they can actually advance their craft by writing about it and discussing it with others. They actually do themselves and their peers a service when they blog or tweet about their work. This is not true of all professions. For the last eight years now I've been working as the controller at an engineering firm. Not only is there a high discretion requirement, but things like bookeeping, financial reporting, payroll and so forth are all basically _solved problems_; accounting isn't really a field that benefits from online discussion, at least not that I can tell. But web developers and software developers congregate online and exchange ideas, and are always learning new things from each other. I suppose I envy that a great deal, even though the work itself can be frustrating. * * * For weeks now, I thought a lot about switching careers cold-turkey, and I did more than think, too. I knocked on a lot of doors, tested the waters. But finally, a few weeks ago, I took a new job doing much the same work I've been doing. I'll be the business office manager at a senior living center. I start in a few weeks. With this new arrangement, my desk will be just one mile from my front door. I'll be walking to work in the morning, and walking home again in the evening. And having a new position at a concern owned by people who mean for it to grow and last means I won't have to give back that middle-class status, or the house, anytime soon after all. Which is a good thing, as it turns out, because a couple of months ago, Trixie stopped caring for tea and began to feel a good deal more tired all the time, which eventually clued us in to the fact that we have a special kind of guest on the way, one who will arrive in July and stay with us for eighteen years or so, until some more permanent arrangement can be found. Swaledale House has a long season of non-stop hospitality stretching out before it, and if I think back, I realize that that's the way I always envisioned it. * * * This has been a Howell Creek Radio address; I'm Joel Dueck. Thanks for being a listener, both to this podcast, and in life, in general. Thanks to those of you who sent me your thoughts by way of the annual listener survey. I'm just going to mention it _once_ more -- make sure you visit howellcreekradio.com and follow the link to fill out our short, utterly anonymous listener questionnaire. Trixie and I will be discussing them together next week. Believe me, adding your thoughts to that discussion will be both significant and rewarding; in fact statistically, it will have more probably have far more of an impact even than voting in a national or statewide election. If you want to subscribe and get new episodes automatically, there are a lot of ways to do so, but the simplest way to do that is to open your web browser to howellcreekradio.com, click the "subscribe by email" link at the top of the page, and use the form to enter your good old-fashioned email address. You'll get an email at 4am on Saturday morning (or sometimes Sunday morning) with a link to each new episode, and an extra little curated list of articles if you want something interesting to read over breakfast. I tweet @HowellCreek, and Facebook at facebook.com/howellcreek. This week's music is from Jose Gonzalez and John Williams' soundtrack for Lincoln which should have won Best Picture at the Oscars -- find links for the music and notes for this episode at howellcreekradio.com. Synopsis ----------- Radio address for Saturday, Mar 2, 2013. I discuss the possibilities and limitations inherent in becoming, and trying to remain, a landed proprietor. What's it like to suddenly be the grown-up, welcoming guests into your home? Don't forget to fill out our [short, anonymous listener survey][survey]. Trixie and I will be discussing the results next week by the fireplace, so if you have any insightful or constructive thoughts to add, you have a good chance of having them read "on the air" (anonymously of course). Music was [_The Nest_][njg] by Jose Gonzalez and the [_Lincoln_ soundtrack][ljw] by John Williams. [njg]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000VSQ17M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000VSQ17M&linkCode=as2&tag=joelsimprpers-20 [ljw]: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009WJ44KC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B009WJ44KC&linkCode=as2&tag=joelsimprpers-20 [survey]: http://joeld.wufoo.com/forms/howell-creek-radio-listener-survey-2013/