Lynn Marchand and Annie Nicksic with beautiful, wide Eel River the background.
The Dome Reunion sparked romance continues in Humboldt County.
The little house on the hill in Fortuna, California.
With beautiful gardens front, back and sides.
I did not really leave the dome community, even when I moved into Davis and then Sacramento for work. I spent a lot of time with other former dome resident and builders who became lifelong friends. We traveled to visit with each other and stayed at each other’s homes. The caring, trust , humor, exchanges of ideas, contact over time , comfortable sense of acceptance…. that’s what I still feel and remember. The adventurrous spirit that leads people to build a dome and/or live in a dome community resides within domies as them move through their lives. Its attractive.
Fast forward through the next years, almost 50 of them. I moved from Davis to Sacramento,k then to Leggett in Mendocino County, and then Humboldt County. I had a career in teaching, educational administration, and college advising. I bought a home. I don’t mind talking about my past work life, but although I take with me memories and lessons learned, I’m immersed now in my older adult life. Rather than be categorized by the work roles I played when younger, I’m a reflective human in a different stage. I understand the idea of time as the great equalizer.
As everyone does, I have regrets and treasured thoughts. I’m an extrovert. Mostly I remember the times I spend with my friends and family. Roadtrips, dinners, new jobs, dancing, books read, performances wtched, spectacular hikes. Lyn Marchand and I encountered each other at the 30th dome reunion in 2002 and married in 2009. Life in Humboldt County is good. We have a small old home in Fortuna on a hillside overlooking the Eel River Valley. We have gotten used to the rain and fog, relish the days the sun shines, the bright blue skies and clean air. We have many appointments with doctors and acupuncturists. We tend to give people unasked for and unqualified medical suggestions based on our own surgical experiences and ongoing aches and pains. I read the NYT political headlines on-line in the mornings, but sometimes skip the dreadful details. I get neurofeedback – biofeedback for the brain – which helps me counter the seasonal affective disorder I’ve had and slowly learned to deal with since I was a very young adult.
Preferring to be outside, I garden and prepare good food. Gardening is my recreation, art, meditation, fun, spiritual practice and an exercise in google searches abut soil types and organic fertilizers. I read. I am in a longstanding book club, write poetry, promise myself I will sort those boxes in the upper cupboard. Be here now, which I once learned I am now relearning. Be with my honey, be with family, be with friends.
~Annie
