When there's no place like home

I've been a little under the weather this week: the combination of minor dental surgery, an initially mild cold that's left me with a persistent cough, and learning that our relatively young cat may only have a few months to live.

It's the stuff of life, really -- none of it enough to loom all that large given the magnitude of the problems facing so many other people on the planet. But I don't seem to have my usual resilience, and I'm finding the longing to curl up in familiar chair and retreat from the world is really strong.

Which is why this old boat appealed to me: it has a look of being familiar, and well-loved; sort of a marine version of a favorite teddy bear.  When I see it, I think of Dorothy's chant in the Wizard of Oz: "There's no place like home, there's no place like home..." Be it ever so humble, there really is no place like home...