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Here we are, it's 2025! As anyone following this blog has noticed, there are bursts of activity followed by long periods of...pretty much
Here is quick thumbnail sketch of what the fwa has been going on since my last post.
I had a bit of a health scare in the late summer of 2023, which turned out to be serious but not as bad my doctors first thought. With some important lifestyle changes, issues with my health have settled down to a manageable status.
Despite our best efforts to keep our 501(c)(3) operating (including from RIDE and the RI Historical Society), Louise Oliveira and I had to close down the RI Council for the Social Studies, as no one would step up to serve on the executive committee. We also transitioned RI Model Legislature to the YMCA's Youth and Government program, again because no one wanted to take over our positions as state coordinators, and the YMCA has the resources to keep the program up and running long after we're gone.
In the middle of all that, I was displaced from my apartment in April 2024, after which I had been looking for a more permanent solution to the question of where to live. I almost bought a house in Charlestown RI from April-June 2024, but that didn't happen.
Then 2024-2025 was an evaluation year at work, which necessitated much of my free time. All that work paid off, as I was rated "Highly Effective" again. Finally, I went to the 2025 conference of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR), which was in Providence RI this year and was quite awesome and professionally invigorating. Next year - Philadelphia!
Meanwhile after many fits and starts I found a house I could afford, which I purchased at the end of April 2025. My new place required extensive renovations before I could move in -- a new heating system, a new well, a new roof, and an entire interior demolition and rebuild. The good news is that after 3 months, the first floor is almost finished! As of mid-August, I can definitely camp out there and hope to be moved in with all my stuff and my cat by the time school starts! o/
I will add that none of this would have been possible without help from one my oldest friends, Ken. He put me onto this property when the deal in Charlestown fell apart, and he has been supervising the 203K renovation process since I closed back in April.
