Hiding...

...in plain sight

It’s past midsummer, and I am determined to make the remainder of this summer — the last of my workaday career — last.

I don’t have any particular plans, other an excursion over the weekend with the bestie. We are heading into NYC for a few days, courtesy of the travel program we signed up for this spring. It will be fun to visit the old haunts, minus any itinerary. We are planning to pick up the pace of our travels in the fall, and take full advantage of more free time (e.g., retirement) come Spring 2027.

I am losing a battle with the desire to disconnect for a while. I find myself spending way too much of my spare time online, engaging in momentarily satisfying yet ultimately unproductive, chatter on the horrors issues of the day.

I’d rather be spending more time actually being “in the arena.”

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt

We have completed our house rehab project. This was a “gut” job, and involved, literally, pushing over the back half of the derelict home.

We finished on time and on budget. The end result is fabulous.

Whole house rehab

And our own little arena keeps expanding: Over the last few weeks, at our HQ site, we erected a new steel building to house our future construction assembly operation. Our Rural Starter Home program will reduce the cost to build by assembling our house panels in advance, using a scalable design. We can start the construction of four types of houses — to suit various family sizes and situations — in this facility, without losing time due to weather.

Meanwhile, we are also deep in the process of designing the site of our next development, which will be next door to our HQ and ReStore operation. As I have written about before, this is a joint affordable housing and conservation development, and a collaboration of four partner organizations.

Near final design concept for Bell’s Pond Community Space

With August on tap, I will be taking a brain break and reducing the frequency of longer entries here, for the next month or so. When I do post, I intend to rely more on Notes and comments. I hope also to post more musical musings on Jackie Ralston’s Music of the Day.

The fall portends to be tumultuous, which is likely an understatement. This is the time to rest and recharge, before we head, once again, into the arena.

See you in September.