My grandmother saves everything. She’s got a drawer full of zip lock bags that have been used for one thing or another, then washed and dried and put back to be used again. As environmentally friendly as I like to think I am, I want my crackers or sandwich in a new unstained baggy (without water spots). She lived through the depression so I appreciate and admire her for being a recycler before it was trendy.

Dawn doesn’t like to throw out anything either. I estimate that we paid about $400 to move several boxes of crap (i.e., items that no one will ever want including us) about 2000 miles to litter our basement and garage. In order to get rid of this stuff I have to do it covertly: slowly over time shoving one in the trash can or tossing it to Goodwill if appropriate. I get caught now and then and have to close down my crap fighting operations for awhile to prevent suspicion.

This morning I was caught not in the act of throwing something away, but thinking about throwing something away. We have a pile of t-shirts down in the basement that are neither in the “to be used as cleaning rags” bin or the “to be used out in the garden or painting” bin. While Dawn and I were down sorting laundry I glanced at those t-shirts and Dawn moves closer and says to me: “those are never to be worn, never to be thrown out.”

Dawn says:

At the 6 month mark I wrote a post on my old blog. It’s amazing to see how differently I feel in some areas and how I still feel the same in others.

At the 6 month mark I was struggling to find my place here. I feel very settled now. I’m also more relaxed than I have ever been in my life. Probably happier too. I have a great group of friends whom I can turn to and also have a great time with. Although, a long time friend knows your shit and you know theirs (I’m going to stop writing for a bit and call E now- damm she wasn’t there) and of course you know their best points and they yours.

At 6 months the weather was really kicking my butt. But now I really appreciate it (I actually own summer clothes as well as winter clothes now). My daughter and I talk about the seasons all the time. It’s apart of our life. You live dramatically different from the winter and the summer. The northwest is just the same ALL the time.

Some Seattle friends came to visit and they were talking about how they would miss the excitement of Seattle and then a MAJOR thunderstorm rolled threw. I was outside running around looking at the sky as it approached and they were not interested. Two very different kinds of excitement.

The beauty of the Northwest I still really miss. The lush green everywhere, the tall evergreens and flowers most times of the year. I miss the shows, and things like the aquarium but I can get on a train and go to Chicago or drive 2 1/2 hours to St. Louis or drive 4 hours to KC.

I thought I was very cool living in Seattle. Feeling so, “in the know”. It is a lot of ego. How much do I miss being part of a city because of the persona it gave me? Who will I be without that part? I’m very interested in letting go of all that and seeing what I am left with and seeing then if I will miss being part of a big city.

I think that will be the second year in Fairfield.

Willi says:

I arrived in Fairfield a year ago, and for the first 5 weeks I lived in and worked in the kitchen of our new house, with three cats, while the rest of the house was being renovated. My wife and daughter stayed at my mother-in-law’s home in Keokuk during that period of time.

With one exception, every friend I left in Seattle thought I was crazy for either quitting my job at Disney or moving to a small mid-western town they never heard of, or both. In fact I think most of my friends mentally blocked out (or just didn’t care to know) most of what I told them about my relocation because even after a year, many of them still ask me, “how are things going in Ohio“.

Ohio, Iowa, whatever.

So to answer the question they meant to ask, here’s how things are going in Iowa.

The Cost of Living - I cannot stress enough how wonderful it is to be free of the shackles of the Seattle housing market. However, while housing is relatively cheap here, food and services are not. Especially items that are part of the green movement - in some cases they cost more than their equivalent back in Seattle.

School - My daughter is enrolled in a small Waldorf Preschool. Not only has it been an incredible experience for her so far, but it has introduced Dawn and I to a great group of liked minded parents and people that we now call friends.

People - Generally speaking, the people in this town are friendly and down to earth. Which has been a tremendously refreshing experience for me. Not only is it nice to be around down to earth, neighborly “folks” for the simple fact that it’s pleasant, but I find myself also wanting - and trying - to slow down and be more down to earth myself.

ScribeStorm - The opportunity to start and run a small development office could not have happened in Seattle due to cost and lack of talent. I would never have been able to find (and afford) the developers I work with at ScribeStorm. While the stress of being a partner in a startup has taken it’s toll on me, the reward of working with some great people has kept me going.

Commute - It’s now news that commuting sucks. But I never even dreamed of the commute I have now.

The Movement - The Maharishi crowd as a whole is both the best and worst thing about Fairfield. On one hand, I’m certain that without them around, Fairfield would be unlivable for me. It’d be like most other Midwestern small towns (enough said).

On other hand, the Maharishi movement has attracted and produced some of the most annoying people I have ever met. The thing I was most afraid of when moving to Fairfield was ignorant meat heads, aka rednecks. However, rednecks have not been a problem around town, but rather pretentious insane people, aka hardcore Maharishi followers (note I do realize this is a small percentage of the movement, or at least I hope it is).

For example, in the past year I’ve had not one, but two meditators come into my office and tell me that I needed to move my desk so that it faces East. I’ve also had meditators who are running small startups come in and give me presentations on technology that is already in existence (ie Google), yet they deny anyone else has come up with this concept.

Bugs - Everyone warned me of the heat and cold in Iowa. I have not been bothered by the weather. Drastic changes in the seasons is still a novelty to me. In fact Dawn and I actually fight over who gets to shovel the snow from the driveway. However what is to be feared out here is the bugs. From Spring through Fall the bugs are horrible. We had weeks were we’d wake up everyday with dozens of bites unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

Big Ag - Everyone needs to come out to Iowa for a week and see how food is grown in America. It’s sickening. I don’t know where the Organic food movement started but it should end here in Iowa, with corporate agriculture turned upside down. In Seattle it was the Salmon, and here it’s pork, corn and other crops. Having this perspective on how our food chains are being ruined (if not already unsavable) from coast to the heartland, has left me mystified as to why food isn’t the biggest topic in the current election, if not second to the war in Iraq.

Change - There’s a lot I miss. Friends, mountains and Asian cuisine mostly. The change of moving to a small town has been a dramatic culture shock, but a very welcome and positive one. I get IMs and emails all the time from friends and acquaintances in Seattle saying, “I still cannot believe you’re in Ohio.” I really don’t have a response. I expect to be wanting to get back to Seattle as soon as possible, but I don’t feel that right now.

It’s pleasant here in Fairfield. And I’m looking forward to a slower 2008.

The Facts:

This past Sunday Willi, Dawn and their daughter biked to Waterworks park to escape the heat and humidity. Despite the beautiful weather there were periods of time where there was no one at the park except for a band in the picnic shelter, amplified and playing music, and this family.

Dawn Says:

How totally surreal.

I swim out to the yellow floaty things at Waterworks. It’s mid-October and I’m swimming outdoors. That is trippy in and of its self.

This trance music starts up and I float on my back and look up at the clouds. The clouds are really great. I swim to shore and no one is at the beach except my husband and child… and a band. It’s playing music pretty loud and the whole scene is like some hippy music fest. Except no one is there. I exit onto the beach and do a downward dog. :-)

Willi Says:

It’s a Sunday. After a peaceful, yet long bike ride under stifling humidity, we get to Waterworks park. We have it all to ourselves except for a group of people in the picnic shelter. The water is freezing cold and smells, so I sit on the beach making sand castles with my daughter while Dawn swims. The clouds are blowing above and it’s quiet. My daughter has my complete attention except for my occasional glimpses at the scenery.

Then the band starts up, playing this kind of trance yoga music or something (Dawn in her Downward Dog pose didn’t help). In seconds, the park is turned into a music festival, except there are no fans (unless you count my wife doing yoga).

I’m annoyed: if I wanted to spend my afternoon at an outdoor concert I would have gone to an outdoor concert. But I wanted to relax.

I’m really annoyed: the music is not only too loud to have a conversation with my family, but it’s that terrible combination of mediocre music and catchy beat. It’s in my head. I start pacing around, begging my family to leave with me. The few people that arrive at the park, soon leave. Validation! The music is loud and annoying!

Another person arrives and walks over to the band. I’m thinking, she is going to say something to them! This will be great. Except she picks up a microphone and starts singing too . . . and she can’t sing. At one point they announce themselves as the rock band “Global Cooling”. I wonder who this announcement was for? That poor tormented family on the beach? The people who are showing up and then leaving for some other park to enjoy their peaceful Sunday?

“Shivaaaaa, Shivaaaaa . . . Sookeeeee, Sookeeeee, Sookee-Dookee, Sookee-Dookee . . . Shivaaaaa, Shivaaaaa.”

That was in my head the whole bike ride home.