Minutiae

The tiny bits and pieces seem to be everywhere. They are in every drawer, every Knick knack dish. Just when I think I have it all, I find more. I could spend hours sorting through it or throw it all in a jar and take it with...better yet just toss it and likely never miss it. Is that battery any good? Do I really want to stick my hand into a jar of thumb tacks and tiny brads? 

Karen spent the day sitting on the couch and building boxes. She has a few that are half filled. She told me that she is nearly through with the kitchen. But the drawers and cabinets are still full. She says we aren't taking that with us. But we still need to pack it up to take it to the charity shop. We have three lined up to take it. What they don't want to take we will leave at Goodwill. 

Ken spent the day watching television in his room. It makes me wonder if he doesn't really want to move and is in denial. 

I cleared my closet and bookshelves today. My desk and chest of drawers are more than half done and will be finished tomorrow. I will be done with my part. I have offered my help to Karen, and she was enthusiastic about it. I find my room sad now. But I am looking forward to my new rooms. 

In the new house, there is a back staircase that leads to my area. I will have a large landing where a sitting room can be set up, my bedroom and a bonus room that I will use for crafts. Karen tells me that both rooms are small, but the area is spacious. I am donating or throwing away as much as I am packing. I am not worried about having enough space. 

We will be outside of town, and up on a mountain. The property is six acres, mostly wooded. My cousin has a house there and there is another house where a family lives. Besides them, There are no near neighbors. The town is about five miles away. It has Karen a little freaked out, but it is only a little farther than the distance I travelled to the grocery store in the community I lived in Georgia. She will get used to it quickly. Especially since there is very little traffic there.

I am looking forward to the quietness, and the darkness at night. It will be nice to be able to see the stars.

Countdown

We have three more weeks here. I have been saying a month for a while and it hit me today that time has passed. We have three weeks to pack up this house and move. I don't think Karen and Ken have given notice where they work. I am only half packed and I have considerably less than either of them. My goal is to finish my room this weekend and try to help them. I can at least pack while they sort, but they have to be here to sort.

I bought a map book and decided on our route across the country. Karen finally listened to me about it last night. We are in agreement. The most direct path also is one of the most scenic. 

Maybe this weekend will get everyone going. We are not young anymore. And we don't have the luxuary of time anymore. 

All I can do is get my part done and offer my help with theirs. 

What's the worst that could happen?

Potluck

A half bag of frozen hamburger patties, a couple of chicken breasts, a half bag of broccoli florets, a half bag of California mix, I'm using up the bits and pieces of food that we have tucked in the back of the freezers. Then there are the leftovers from the meals I made with the ingredients above. Dinner tonight looked like a potluck dinner and served on the leftover plates from Thanksgiving. 

I went through the bits and pieces drawer in my room. I packed what I'm keeping but won't need in the next little while. All that is left in the drawer are the things that I need in the next month. I did the same thing with my cosmetics drawer. Those were the two mental roadblocks to packing for me. I was hoping that would give me the umph that I need to start plowing through with the rest of it. I haven't even been here a full six years. I wonder how I accumulated so much stuff.

Karen has a lifetime of things to go through. Ken is in denial and hasn't even started packing yet. It feels like a Herculean feat for three old people to be undertaking. Moving at our age. 

Homeward Bound

 

It's been awhile...

I miss blogging...

I still think blog posts in my head, but they don't end up here...

Blogger doesn't make it easy to blog using an iPad. They don't seem to like Apple users...

And the internet around here is no better than a joke... We spend a lot of time buffering...

Reasons, or excuses? But it's all I have.

The year did not end well. We spent the spring and summer enjoying parties, concerts, ball games, graduations, and art shows. The fall was marked by loss, and sadness. The good loss was of the presence of Nora. After graduating in the spring, she is seeking her master's at the University of Hawaii, and she is loving it. We miss her but are so happy that she is finding her path.

Just before she left, her cat died. A month later Max left us. He'd been sick for a while. Still, his death sent a shock through everyone. His personality set the tone for the household. The loss of his presence is felt. 

Bad news comes in threes. So, a month later the worst loss happened. Our aunt died. Like Max, it was not unexpected but was a gut punch anyway.  She had been living with the early stages of dementia for years. Just before Thanksgiving she developed a kidney infection and died in her sleep while it was being treated. She was one of the YaYa sisterhood that formed our early lives. My mother, her two sisters and a sister-in-law were the village in which we were raised. Her loss leaves our Aunt Joan as the last living sibling in that family. As much as we are grieving, she is devastated. 

And then there was Nov. 5th....

Before the holidays could greet our sorrow and loss we got one more gut punch. Mollie called to tell me that George was at the end of his journey. He'd been a wonderful dog to her, more of a child than a pet. Like Max, the loss of his presence is felt in everything. She asked that I go to Chicago to spend Christmas with her. I could not say no. I went, but with all the sadness and loss it was a joyless holiday. 

It wasn't just Mollie and I who seemed sad and grieving. Everyone seemed to be dealing with loses of their own. Everybody was going through the motions, but nobody's heart seemed to be in it. 

I took the Empire Builder home on December 30th which had me traveling through the New Year. I was feeling a bit off when I got on the train. In the two days I was on it, I came down hard with the flu despite having gotten the shot. By the time I arrived in Seattle, I was in bad shape. I was down for the better part of January. 

The New Year did not start well...

I was pretty much still bed bound when one of our cousins called. Aunt Joan was doing poorly, and it was felt that she was giving up. Our cousin asked if we could come help out. Even though it meant being in Alabama on inauguration day, Karen went. I don't know if it was Karen's visit or just having the family circle around her cheered Aunt Joan up a bit. She has been doing well since then.

We have been talking about moving back to the south rather euphemistically for about two years. We need to help the cousins out with their aging parents...yada, yada, yada...But the truth is that the PNW has become too expensive to live in on Social Security and pensions. With one of our aunts passing away and another needing encouragement to continue, we are feeling the need all the more. But Karen and Ken have been finding excuses to stay. The truth is that choosing to retire is scary, especially when you don't have a nest egg to fall back on. And they don't even have viable pensions. While Karen was in Alabama she talked about our plans. Our cousins are apparently enthusiastic about them. One cousin, John has a house on his property that he needs to rent. It hits everything on our wish list for housing and more. Other cousins have offered cars and furniture to make our joining them more doable. It turns out that we are moving the middle of next month. Our rent will be $1500 less than it is here. Utilities are about a third of what we are paying, and groceries are substantially less. 

Hopefully this will be a turning point for us. In the least, Karen and Ken can afford to retire. As long as we are together, maybe we can weather the coming storm.