That’s A Lot to Unpack

The art of moving during a pandemic

A former student painted this watercolor of our new abode in Charlotte — a sort of Hansel and Gretel cottage without the witch and the deadly oven. I gifted this rendering to Moker for Christmas. Watercolor by Lisa Olmsted-Thompson, who has an Etsy shop, if you’re interested.

The crisp air settles over the neighborhood. The hum of leaf blowers and other tools of the lawn maintenance trade drone on in the background. The family of black squirrels — which seems to have multiplied in the three months we’ve been in our new digs — skitters among the trees and rustles through the leaves scattered haphazardly on the suburban landscape. Our…