Home by Nan Reinhardt and Me

I will begin this with Nan's post on our last day ... and a half ... and end it with being back home. Thanks to those who've journeyed with us this week.

Nan here. Well, we’re packing, finishing up last-minute little details as we prepare for our trip back to real life. Right now, we’re both sipping coffee and we have the fireplace going for a last few moments of the bliss of writing together by the fire.

One sorta goofy thing that’s happened here is that the air is very dry and the static electricity is through the roof. Yesterday morning I woke up with my hair looking like I’d stuck my finger in a light socket. It took dampening my brush and running it through my hair to calm it down. This morning Liz had the same issue. We really wished we had dryer sheets to rub on our heads.

Yesterday was a stay-in-and-write-day. For one thing, it was dadgum cold–33 degrees when we woke up. For another, we both had writing goals when we got here and we were  determined to reach them. We did–yay us! We processed like crazy–the best we’ve ever processed together. Both our stories came into focus and we’re pretty sure we know where we’re headed with these new books.

Wisely, we got up about every hour or so and walked the halls of the complex, which is just gorgeous and homey and so very welcoming. Everyone has been kind and helpful and we’ve been asked “What can we do for you?” with such sincerity. As it turned out, the condo was so great, the answer was always, “We’re good, thank you.”

We swam after we stopped work late yesterday afternoon–the pool is as gorgeous as the rest of the complex. See? On one of our walks, we passed a guy who had used one of the grills to make a steak and garlic bread that looked and smelled heavenly–had we been a little more feral, we’d have nabbed him and taken it away from him. But instead we ate our leftovers from Vinny’s and enjoyed them too.

All in all, this retreat has been one of our best, thanks to lovely accommodations and good writing vibes. We feed off each other so well, that stories bloom when we’re together. Interestingly, we have determined that our writing styles are so different, we could never write a book together. We want to keep the friendship alive; who knows what trying to produce a book together would do to this “us” that we cherish.

We’re having breakfast in town at place called Bread & Vine–their online menu looks intriguing. So send good travel vibes and thanks so much for sharing this week with us. Life and blogs go back to regular programming starting with the Sunday Snippet in a couple of days.

Stay well, be kind to someone today.

And now we are back. I'm in the office after a night at home, enjoying being back with the guy in the other recliner. Nan and I agreed, after I don't know how many retreats, that this one was the best. It was also the one where we did the least outside of the apartment where we stayed. There may be a lesson in that ...

The sun is rising in a huge splash of red as I write this, turning the western sky that deep morning blue outlining the view in gentle, bright relief. I am once again grateful for this shotgun office that gives me view of both. The harvested fields are gold in the waking morning, the colors in the trees perking up and changing almost right before my eyes.

Did I mention grateful?

While we kept up with news to a certain extent, we didn't watch any. We made tentative plans for where we would go next fall, what we would do in the spring, when we go off for a shorter time in a closer place. "Brown County?" said Nan.

Maybe.

If you're interested in writing, the Black Dog Writers will meet Monday at 5:00 p.m. at Black Dog in Logansport. We're always glad to see you!

And, if you're out and about today, visit the Fall Crawl downtown. Have a good week. Be nice to somebody.