YEAR THREE: Our July Vacation, Housewarming and The End of Year Three

We were looking for a place to go over July Fourth weekend. It was Joe's only weekend off this summer, what with weddings and bar and bat mitzvah celebrations to officiate. He asked me if there was somewhere we could drive to (we hate to fly-sorry GP) that we hadn't visited. I suggested Virginia Beach, where our friends Ellen and Spencer live. My sister's home in Greenbelt is almost exactly halfway, so we made up with Robin to stop in on the way in and back.

I met Ellen and Spencer at least twenty-seven years ago in Los Angeles. Ellen was a member of my mostly-gay-and-lesbian temple. I approached her at her job, teaching English at Le Conte Junior High in Hollywood, where I often worked as a sub. I incorrectly assumed she was a lesbian. As she explained, there wasn't a place for a childless-by-choice feminist in an average Reform temple, so she joined ours. Spencer worked in the film industry, doing special effects for movies. He told me he was from Norfolk, fled after high school and never wanted to return.

That will teach you to never say "Never." Ellen, after writing three books, getting a master's in Jewish Studies and later becoming a certificated cantor, decided to become a rabbi and they departed for Philadelphia just before (I think) Joe and I left L.A. for Crescent City. Between changes in technology and outsourcing to foreign countries, Spencer's work had dried up.

Ellen was responsible for most of the cantor jobs I got after 1997. I followed her to Rodeph Shalom, where I worked for three holiday seasons and most Friday nights for two and a half years. We both worked at different times at the temple in Downey, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Anyway, they decided after Ellen's ordination last year in June, that Virginia Beach would be a good place for a rabbi to start out, and Spencer's mother, who is a spritely ninety-one, is there. Spencer's return to southeast Virginia is as unlikely as finding me in Morgantown, West Virginia married to the town's Reform rabbi.

So we hung with them for a few days. We attended a Conservative synagogue in Norfolk Saturday morning, July Fourth. We know the rabbi-long story. We braved the mobs on the beach to see the fireworks that evening, and attended a cookout in our honor Sunday. Spencer gave us a tour of Norfolk Saturday afternoon and Joe and I went out exploring on our own later while they stayed in to cook for Sunday's party.

I remembered that the military had asked for an appropriation to prepare military bases for climate change. Our own Congressperson in Northern West Virginia, David McKinley, made sure, with the help of troglodytes in his party, that there would be no money, since there is no climate change. Unless you go to Norfolk and see a city rife with military bases, surrounded by tidewater that is measurably rising. It's easy to see the imminent demise of this beautiful city.

I was surprised to see palm trees. Many of them looked sickly, as they had frozen in the winter, but those directly on the water seemed to be thriving. We also noted, given the racist history of Virginia
(public schools closed to avoid integration in 1959) how diverse was the racial makeup of the crowd at July 4 and how many interracial couples there were out that night. Most of the people were young, so maybe they don't know or care about the local history.

Robin came back with us from Greenbelt. We decided to have people over to our semi-unpacked house the Saturday of her visit. Robin took over the planning. She and I picked out a menu from our local Panera. Everything went well. Our house turns out to be a good place for a party, so we will have more people over.

July 11 we celebrated three years in Morgantown, and thus the end of Year Three. Our big news for the year was buying a house. We didn't know what we were missing. Tomorrow (Thursday) a guy is coming to measure our bedroom windows for blinds. This house was a gift from my late mother. It's my share of her mutual fund that paid for the down payment and much of the new furnishings. The mortgage payments will come from Joe.

Year Three was amazing for us. We flew to San Francisco and Los Angeles, our former homes, last summer, drove to Memphis for Joe's cousin's bar mitzvah in September, and visited New York at the end of 2014 and saw friends and relatives, as well as "Beautiful! The Carole King Musical." I got behind on my monthly county visits, but managed to spend time in Barbour and Berkeley Counties in West Virginia, Bath, Bedford and Bland Counties in Virginia, Belmont County, Ohio and Beaver, Bedford, Berks and Blair Counties in Pennsylvania. I taught a six-week class last fall at OLLI on the music of the British Invasion: 1964-69.

People ask "So what are you doing now that you are retired?" I keep busy.

I also made a conscious decision this year to be happy about living in Morgantown. Joe is doing well with his work, we have finally met some age-appropriate gay people to hang with, as well as becoming friends with many of the people from Tree of Life. Lots of people in town know and like us now. We could not have afforded this house in urban California. We've dealt with two bitterly cold and snowy winters, and we find we can deal with the weather. I look forward to more fun and challenges in Year Four. Watch for a new blog.

The first five pictures are from Norfolk on July 4.