It's really beginning to look like we'll be here through the winter. Sigh. I wish it were different, but it just ain't so. We just had our fourth showing on the house this morning but I don't hold out much hope for anything to come of it. We have some stiff (and cheaper) competition out there right now in our area. Our thought is to take it off the market in mid-September and to relist it next February. Our move has to coincide with weather at the cabin, and if we leave it too late we are compromising our first winter there by arriving too late in the year.

Sometimes I feel like I'm on a carousel. Each day I go around trying to grab the brass ring, but every day I miss. Around and around. Day after day. That elusive brass ring, always just out of reach.

There are upsides to staying here until spring. Rick will be able to draw from his 401K at that point instead of relying on savings for those few months, and he'll have more stock options and another bonus. And, hopefully the house will sell early on and we can move in the spring, taking the whole summer to ready the cabin (and us) for winter. It feels like a long way off, I have to say. What is it that they say — all good things come to those who wait?

In the meantime they are in no hurry to have Rick leave at work, which is a good thing. We have a lovely home and there are certainly a lot worse places to be living than where we are. We really do like it here, but it's time to move on to the next chapter.

So far in our lives we've experienced different chapters. First was the "European Ex-Pat Chapter," then the "Dog Show Chapter" and now the "New Jersey Chapter." I should write more about those early chapters some day.

We are anxiously awaiting the "Cabin Chapter."