Thank the gods 2016 is over.
I think it’s been a rough year for many people. My rough 2016 actually stretches all the way back to fall 2015, when my wife and I upped stakes and moved back to the mid-south to take care of her mother.
The stress of that time – her mother’s health, the terrible condition of the house we bought, the shock of discovering that all traces of the friendly South we’d once known were gone – almost undid us. We felt abandoned, hated by our neighbors and resented by her family.
Things improved when we were able to tread water enough to reconnect with our friends, plug back into the community of accepting nerds and geeks we’d missed.
But the presidential campaign, culminating in the election of a liar, a swindler, and a bigot, convinced us that nothing could make up for the fact that we don’t belong here. And never will.
So we’re moving back to California.
Back to a state that takes life seriously, and so passed the most restrictive gun control laws in the country.
A state that takes liberty seriously enough to want to offer it to refugees from a horrible civil war.
A state that knows the pursuit of happiness means respecting the many diverse ways that its citizens go about it.
I can’t wait to be back home.
