Winter in the California mountains
I
My new digs in Ottawa 2021
I live in the mountains in central California and the cold here in winter is becoming unbearable. But then spring and summer come and I’m in love with my house and my friends and my life here. I have to move somewhere else. So this year, instead of making a vow I would sell my house and move before winter came again, I thought of an interim plan.
When the Central Coast chapter of Sisters in Crime invited me to speak about my latest novel, I looked around and thought what a wonderful place the California coast would be to spend the winter.
Sue McGinty, a fellow mystery writer who lives in Los Osos, asked me to house sit over the holidays. She writes good books about the central coast around Morro Bay. I breezed around San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach looking for a place.
Craiglist turned up a great opportunity and the dance between me and a potential landlord has begun. They are a young couple with a room to rent in their home and I want to live there too. I write to them: “No Drama. No boyfriend. No girlfriend. No aging parents, no children. One arthritic, ancient dog. The rent will be paid. I’m neat. I will respect your property because I am a homeowner too.”
And I wait. I write again. They called finally and invited me to meet them next weekend. This week we are promised blizzards, cold, rain, and snow. Sigh. I will get through it hoping it’s my last bout of real winter. I want so much to make this happen. When I meet them I will be all smiles, certified check in hand, and not one single mention of decomposition. On my best behavior.
Wish me luck.
PS Reading this over 5 years later, I’ve moved finally and it wasn’t to the California coast but to my birthplace, Ontario, Canada, specifically, Ottawa the national capital. Life takes strange twists, doesn’t it? I don’t even remember what happened to derail this plan.
And my latest novel, By Accident, 5 years later. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B096G2RQ9X?pf_rd_r=YCW1GN9RWQ5HSEQM2GMA&pf_rd_p=6fc81c8c-2a38-41c6-a68a-f78c79e7253f&pd_rd_r=17521562-2e2e-4045-bbde-19162b56c47f&pd_rd_w=lDZ0H&pd_rd_wg=Zk3Mk&ref_=pd_gw_unk