My first day in my new home state, Vermont

It is 12:43 AM and my partner and I are in a blow up bed with our Pug Butters,and our cat Sammy in our new home in Bellows Falls Vermont. We arrived a few hours ago after two plane rides and an hour and a half in a rented mini van (LOL yes, a mini van). It is thirty degrees outside right now as opposed to the mid sixty degrees we have permanently left behind in California this morning (and winter hasn't even begun in our new home). Some of my friends think I am crazy and maybe they are right, we are crazy...but then again maybe we are not! What at first started out as a simple attempt at investing a little money in some land with timber or a small vacation cabin has turned into a major lifestyle change and an entirely new and awesome (in the true sense and meaning of the word) adventure. Growing up in California's sunshine and cultural and financial diversity was a great experience. It made me the person I am today. However, things have changed as they are bound to. Change being one of the few things in life which is constant and to be expected. The Bay Area where I grew up in the seventies and eighties just isn't the same anymore, and I just don't like what it has become. Herb Caen's "Baghdad by the Bay" has more of Sadam Hussein's Baghdad than the romantic notions Herb Caen associated with it (now I am showing my true colors, I wonder how many current day San Franciscans know what I am talking about or who Herb Caen was). The city I grew up in lives only in my head now. The small town city where you could walk up to Mayor Dianne Feinstein's door and knock, or look up Anne Rice in the phone book and call her to chat about her novel Interview with a Vampire and have her take your call does not exist. It too is gone with the wind. It has been replaced by a facsimile of what. it once was. Full of successful entrepreneurs, the hub of modern technology it is now a factory of educated, ambitious, motivated thirty somethings and millenials riding a carousel of career advancement each stretching their fingers to get the brass ring. Art, music and culture still thrive but what was once a city of poets and artists working for the Muse inside has become one in which the Muse has been replaced. Inspiration no longer being the motivator having been exchanged for ambition, entitlement, and the need for recognition. Recognition not for the art, recognition for the Ego. This world brings with it the coldness of the lack of civility. People do not say hi nor do they greet each other. Neighbors don't know each other and sadly don't want to. Saying hello to someone on the street is a chore not something which flows naturally from human kindness. A city once known for tolerance and doing the right thing still has it but the difference is that the source was once governed by conscience as opposed to "political correctness" or the fear of what someone else might think. For example, in the seventies at a four way stop sign, there would he a delay as the drivers waved to the others conceding their right to proceed out of politeness now someone will take out not only a car but a pedestrian and a biker as they run either a stop sign or a red light...this happens daily! So long story short, in an effort to change my life and reclaim some of the things I liked such as civility and a respect of others and the ability to knock on my mayor's door if I had a question without metal defectors, being frisked or ending up in jail I looked for a little corner in my American world where as a Gay man I could live such a life. I found Bellows Falls and decided to make it my home! The purpose of this blog is to capture my experiences, my trials and my tribulations while trying to build a home for me, my partner, and our pets in this beautiful state we now call home, Vermont.