Moving . . . really?

Well as Linda and I continue driving for 35-40 minutes to and from work each day it is beginning to take a toll and we’ve been discussing a move from good ol Claremore. Good ol Claremore is loosing some of its luster as we continue to see what we believe irresponsible decisions made by local officials. One item that is of particular concern is the continued drive to build what Linda calls the Great Wall. What is proposed is a raised railroad from the north to south of Claremore which would allow traffic to move uninterrupted by trains on that track which is all fine and good except that there are two tracks that intersect in only one place which means that traffic will still be blocked by the other track. The local officials use what I call the GOB system (if it benefits the good ol boys locally then it’s a done deal). Enough negativity . . .

On the positive side we’ve talked to the builder that built our home back in 2002 and he believes he can rebuild it for the same money now because of the downturn prices of lumber and labor. Depending on location we believe that we can cut 15-20 minutes off of the drive time and that would be a good thing. We’ve talked to our realtor and he believes he can give us a sales price that will allow us to do a do-over build! The only question at this point is can we find a lot in Owasso that we can afford that has a view. We overlook the 8th hole of the Heritage Hills gold course in Claremore and have a great view of the course and the house was designed to take advantage of the view. We don’t need a view of a golf course but we do need a view of something other than the neighbor’s back yard. :-)

This summer I’ve applied for several NEH seminars and hope to get selected for one as well as a Gilder Lehrman seminar in PA . . . keeping my fingers crossed with word to come the first week of April.

Linda and I are also planning a tour of Europe in the summer of 2011 by taking a group of my AP students on a tour called “WWII and the Western Front”. It provides a two week trip with stops in London, Paris, Munich, Berlin and Nuremberg and I can’t wait. Some students will take it for dual credit (high school and college).