GH is a paradox.  I mean that in only the best sense.  When Mary and I made the decision to relocate from Palatine, we decided to never look back.  Palatine is a village of over 50,000 people.  GH is a city with around 10,000 in the off season.  Palatine has fine schools as does GH, but in myriad ways, GH is better than Palatine.  Better downtown, the famous river-walk, and a pace of life that is just fast enough to make things interesting.  Take yesterday for example.  Once our indexing work was done and my information session at the Community Center was over, we decided to take a walk into the downtown.  We used to do that in Palatine too, but with the highway in the way and the steady stream of traffic, it just wasn't all that enjoyable.  Our trip to the downtown was after a couple of walks that Sugar and I took yesterday, and the only time that it was that easy in Palatine, was early on a Sunday morning.  Otherwise, too much traffic.  Now I recognize that if we lived east Beacon, it might be much like it was in Palatine, but we don't, and that's one of the paradoxes.  We couldn't afford a house in the downtown area of Palatine, here we could and we did.  Once we decided to stay for the winter, we experienced the second paradox.  Michigan weather isn't usually this accommodating in the winter, and today they are predicting more snow, but as I've often observed, when you are retired, you can start your day when you want.  I didn't have time for that in Palatine.  Here in GH, I've had the time to wake up and smell the tea, which I never had time to do in Palatine.   I don't envy those who who have to endure winter weather on their way to work.  Now I take life each day, as it comes, only at a later time.  I never had the time to just sit and read, nor to write this blog, nor to work on my other forms of writing.  In short, that's the last paradox, that we don't often get the time to do things until we don't have the strength to do them.  My thanks to the people of GH, we love it here.  Tea time.