So where do you hope to retire? Same place as you live or move?  See, we live life in a great but very expensive state. California.  If I could die here, I would.  But that would be financially stupid.  So here we sit.  Where to move. Per my wife’s parameters, we have to live within 20 miles of a major airport.  That severely limits the places we can live.  Furthermore, I want to live in a progressive city, so no urban yet conservative place at all.  Atlanta maybe?  Although GA scares the fuck out of me.  Nashville? TN is a rat hole, so…no. Go back to my home state of Minnesota?  Thought about it, but I haven’t lived there in 34 years.  Those people I think I have a connection with?  Yeah, they’ve got their own lives.  I couldn’t possibly insert myself into them this late into the game. 

So where do you move?  And what criteria have you used, if you have, to do so?

Since I was a kid, I wanted to retire in the Sierras, surrounded with the trees and mountains I’ve always loved. The wildfire danger the last several years killed that idea.  Nashville, where my sister relocated to a few years ago, would have been my next choice, but the cost of living there rivals California now. So, Ohio was a good compromise. Three doors down is the edge of a forest that goes on a mile and a half in every direction, which is what I really wanted. I don’t plan on leaving.  

JB: Except for rarely going down to the Studio any more, little has changed. Reading more. That’s about it."

JB, do you still find yourself doodling? Or are your pens exclusively for words now?