Last night

So, as I am entering the decanal world once again, that means leaving the classroom and entering the office. Here's mine. That big batwing thing is a standing-desk retrofit apparatus with screens. Pretty slick, innit?

There will be differences working for a technical college instead of a community college, not the least of which seems to be the amount of motorcycle parking available. After a week, I am totally happy with the campus, the staff, my faculty, and the programs.

Once source of all that goodwill has to be the living arrangements as well as the job itself. This is the view from our deck, looking at the Alaska Ferry Terminal/Amtrak Train Station just down the street, on Bellingham Bay.

And that's the view from the cafe in Village Books, a short walk away - the Bay is always somewhere in the background, it seems. Bellingham is just a pleasant and laid-back place - quite a change from Seattle, especially the city Seattle is becoming.

But Seattle is where I am tonight. Coco and I spent the day finishing the packing and tomorrow morning the movers come. I had my last meal at our neighborhood pho place as a local, and tonight will be the last night we spend under this roof, where we've been for almost ten years.

I moved around a lot when I was a kid, so moving in and of itself doesn't signify for me; I know Coco is a little more affected, but in the end she's as excited to make a new home as she is sad to leave this one. We won't miss the daily garbage truck visits, the freeway noise from I-5 a few blocks away, the commute traffic, the neighborhood traffic, or the alley denizens, but this townhouse has been a good home to us. We've seen a lot of good times, hosted a lot of good friends, and served a lot of Thanksgiving waffles in these rooms, and our move to Bellingham has some bitter in with the sweet. Thank goodness that noisy freeway connects these two towns.

One  thing that it totally sweet: I can unpin my Alley Marshall badge and throw it into the dust: from here on in, let someone else worry about the garbage cans overflowing, lids being blown away in a storm, or recycling being strewn about by a critter or other scavenger.  I quit.

Time to ride off to the horizon.