[JoeFromSidney]

I've been on both sides. I spent 25 years in the military, averaging a move every two years. On one assignment, I met and married a young lady who accompanied me on all those moves, including an overseas tour. We were as close to placelessness as you can get, being rooted only where our respective parents lived.

After I retired, her family home in a small town came on the market, when her aunt died. We bought the place. I've lived there ever since, now over thirty years. I've been rooted for the first time since I grew up and left my parents' home.

Travelling around was great, but being rooted in a small town is much better.

[reed13k]

Military took me away as well, then when I got out (not retired) work kept us moving. I’m happy at this point that we’ve managed to get back to the same region.

I would love to be able to head back “home”. But alas, it’s never to be.

I’d never be able to convince the wife for two reasons.

First, being from Japan she’s more “citified” than a “home” of 800 could ever approach - though she’s starting to move a little my direction.

But second and likely a bigger issue, she has a hang up about being closer to my family when she’s so far from her own. I don’t think it’s jealousy as much as it is trying to avoid the pain she experiences. When she sees me with my family/friends, she misses her own.