From 130 Catbrier to 130 Hunt

As most readers of this blog know, I'm a moving target. I'm on the road about half the time—both as a process consultant and as FIC's main administrator—and I'm typing this from Carolyn Kroll's dining room table at Durham Central Park (DCP), where I have just arrived and am being graciously hosted for the National Cohousing Conference this weekend. In fact, I can see the downtown Marriott where the event will take place just by looking out the window to my right. I'll easily be able to walk to the venue from here.

It's taken me two-and-a-half days to get here from Rutledge, driving solo in a rental car that was packed to the gills with boxes of books (this weekend, FIC is operating the conference bookstore both for the cohousing event in Durham, and for the Building the New World Conference happening concurrently on the Radford University campus in Radford VA (which will be staffed by long-time FIC Board member Marty Klaif).

I had spent last night at Shannon Farm—where I'd stopped both to break up the drive and to hand off several boxes of books to Marty—and was the house guest of dear friends, Jenny Upton & Dan Questenberry. Getting in the car this morning, I noticed their beautiful handcrafted sign (constructed in colorful mosaic tiles) at the edge of Dan & Jenny's walkway and right in front of my windshield, proclaiming their address "130 Catbrier Circle." With a rush of realization, laughed. I was about to drive south for three-plus hours down to the Tarheel State, only to arrive at DCP, located at 130 Hunt St in downtown Durham. How unlikely was that? (I checked my rolodex and these two are the only addresses out of 756 that have 130 as their street number.) Pretty weird.

Maybe I should buy lottery tickets featuring the numbers 1, 3, and 0.

By the Numbers
To be clear, I'm not a superstitious guy (I didn't, for example, count to see if it took me 130 steps to get from my car to the door of Carolyn's apartment), but I do like to play with numbers (almost as much as I enjoy playing with words). Though I noticed that these identical addresses start with thirteen, I am not triskaidekaphobic. 

The upcoming event will be my ninth consecutive national cohousing conference (I haven't missed any this century). It will be one of seven community events that FIC will sponsor this year. Here are the other six, in chronological order:

The Farm Communities Conference, May22-24, Summertown TN
Building the New World Conference, May 28-31, Radford VA
Twin Oaks Communities Conference, Sept 4-7, Louisa VA
Power of Community Conference, Sept 25-27, Yellow Springs OH
West Coast Communities Conference, Oct 9-12, Yorkville CA
NASCO Institute, Oct 30-Nov 1, Ann Arbor MI

I figure it's going to be an eventful year, no matter what your favorite number is.