A quick update from the Edge of America
I'm here. Settling in for Phase One of this adventure, the time when it's Just Me. The rest of the family remains in Texas while we attempt to sell the house. (Won't somebody please buy our house?)

The middle of Florida is just as I remember it -- clear blue sky, mild temperatures, occasional sea breezes. I missed out on the humidity, and I'm told it hasn't rained much in the past three years, which has been a problem. Seems the lakes are all drying up and stuff.

But I'm here. I'm OK, so far. The job's OK, so far. Need to get the family back together, though, and fast.

Well ...
... it's official on all ends. I'm leaving behind the Very Large Metropolitan Newspaper, all its greatness and all its flaws. I'm soon to be The Misplaced Texan.

I received an offer from the Medium-Sized Metropolitan Newspaper on the East Coast for which I formerly worked that was too good to pass up. I'll be heading to Florida this weekend to begin -- resume, I guess -- my work there.

When we say it's time for a change in our house, we mean it's Time for a Change. We're not much for sitting still. Our tolerance for unhappiness and/or boredom is practically zero. We're lucky that when we see Unhappiness or Boredom approaching, we have the ability to simply turn and walk away from it.

That's what we're doing here. Many question the validity of this Change as a career move. I say, screw them. It is, in fact, a step up in responsibility, balanced by being a step down in market size. But this is not just about the career. It's about the quality of life outside of work. We had said Quality in Florida, in droves. Granted, we only had one kid for most of that time, so we're a different family now. But I trust we'll find that Quality, in the streams and lakes, at the beach, at beautiful wooded state parks and wildlife preserves. We'll find that Quality in a place where it can be 85 degrees any day of the year, where I could sit on my back porch at 2 a.m. in January wearing shorts and toting a beer.

Nothing's guaranteed. We're living, walking, moving examples of that. I guess the Three-Year Itch flared up again. I'll concede that. And I'm making no guarantees that come 2005, we won't be searching again.

But I'm also excited about my job for the first time in a long, long time. That means something to me. I'm also excited about the fun my children and The Wife and I are going to have among the manatees and the seagulls (and the palmetto bugs, and the lizards ... )

I leave to pursue The Change this weekend. The rest of the family will follow soon.

Said pursuit will take me away from this forum for a while. It will return soon, in a new and hopefully improved form.

Thanks to everybody for their support. Check back periodically; we'll have Reports from the Edge of America ready soon.

Brevity rules
It's funny: I can't help but notice that as my posts get shorter, the reaction I'm receiving increases. (Thanks, by the way.)

Of course, it also may be that I'm getting reaction simply because they're so cryptic. (The e-mail with the subject line, "Huh?" might be a hint.)

Whatever, I'll take it. We'll return to regular programming soon.

I'm too honest
It's probably cost me a lot of money and who knows what else. But I try to be completely honest with everybody at every turn. It makes me a terrible negotiator, because I'm pretty quick to show my hand.

I'm sending out a plea to the world at large: Please return the favor.

The bad thing about the world
Here in the house, we trust each other. We know nobody's trying to put one over on anybody else, and if anybody tries it, he or she gets called on it pretty quick. It's hard for the kids to weasel something past Mom or Dad. The Wife and I know we're looking out for each other's best interests, even when those interests conflict with what we think we really want.

But the trust line apparently ends at our front door.

I don't know whom to trust.

Who's looking out for me, if anybody? It's getting kind of exhausting, having to look out for myself all the time.