2012: the 2nd year a Fall Semester came around without my presence as a teacher or a student. I have retired and keep my husband company as his health issues threaten to become our focus. But because of the Internet, I have discovered a community here on the reading couch: cousins I only knew from brief summer visits (if that), faces across a congregation, fellow workers in a prison ministry and a children's council, a few former students, like-minded soul mates, gadflies who make me think, dear friends and family members I knew but now know better, friends of friends of friends, connections and interconnections, discourses, bricolage, montage, farrago, web, pastiche, collage, splatter of color, words, games, quizzes, art, photography, music, geography, geology, archaeology, history, science, faith, argument, persuasion, description, exposition, narrative, parable, proverb, poetry, poetry, poetry, and--yes--cute animals and disgusting trolls. Life outside is more alive because of it.