Yes I have been AWOL but with good reason????

It has been a very busy last few weeks and aside from reading several books between the crazy go go go times I haven't really done much of anything else. I got our PODS loaded and stored and I got myself and my dogs driven to New Mexico with a stop for a full day in Broken Arrow to visit my daughter and her family there. Now I am again in a short limbo waiting for the folks I need to talk to about housing to get back to their normal routine. I really want to get into a place as soon as possible so I can set up my office space and get back to writing and blogging. I also need to have a real address to give folks and to do all of the other things necessary for day to day living.
Tomorrow I am taking my beloved chihuahuas to a doggy daycare so I can drive around in the heat looking at potential homes for us to settle into. Wish me luck because I really want to get this part done. I have to settle in and then get over to the campus of the local Community College and get signed up for classes this fall. I feel I will lose all the momentum I have built up with studies in the last year if I don't get that done quickly.
Do I like New Mexico? I really don't know yet. I have not explored much because its too hot for the dogs to be out for long and they need to be walked every two hours which doesn't leave me much exploration time. Once we are in a house then I will get to see what this state can show me. I did like seeing the Southwestern designed overpasses as I drove into the state. They are truly unique and pretty. Right now because of all the fires around the state the air quality is bad. I understand that this is not the norm so once the fires are out and the air clears I will get a better concept of the environment. Wish me well and lots of luck. house hunting has proven a challenge so far.

Turning Point

Today Terry (the hubby) is headed out to New Mexico in his car with the bird. I hope he takes the time to rest on the way because he has plenty of time to get there. Its just under 1700 miles and he is supposed to only do about 600 miles a day max so that he can arrive in three days. We have his temporary quarters set up for him and I will join him in about three weeks or so.
I have the job of packing the POD and finishing up the goodbyes before I can leave. Fortunately when I get there I will have so much to do I should get plenty of exercise. I will need to begin right away home hunting. We might buy but most likely will rent for a year first. It depends on what is available. I prefer to rent and get to know the area first then after a year buy something knowing better where we would want to live. At our age I envision a retirement community of active seniors for us. But who knows what is out there. I understand Santa Fe is actually close enough for the job and a real nice area. But I bet there are plenty of other nice areas as well. The adventure of discovering them will soon begin.....Stay tuned.

Plans and Reality

Now that I am aware of how this move from North Carolina to New Mexico is going to go I at least can breathe a little easier and get on with it. It’s not perfect how we have to do it, but it will work. Seems I am to stay behind a month (approximately two pay periods) to take care of the moving details. Terry will go ahead and report for work on his scheduled day of June 13. He will have to make the drive alone but he will have ample time to get there leaving June 8^th or 9^th.  He will have to tough it out in temporary housing.

I will be renting a PODS unit and loading it up on this end myself. The PODS people will pick the POD up, transport it to NM, and store it until we have picked out and acquired housing. I will have a garage sale on June 4^th and hope to rid myself of a lot of clutter not needed. Then after that I will give anything I did not want to keep to Goodwill or Salvation Army. I am excited about having an opportunity (excuse) to purge. Even though the unit is a pretty good size (16’ by 8’ by 8’) It would not hold everything and I do not want to double the cost. In the past we have made moves where the company has arranged for and paid the movers for us. This was not a great thing to do because we dragged way too much stuff around the country. Now we have to budget and many things are just no longer needed. Of course I want to keep things like photos that are not yet scanned into digital format (a project that is worth taking on but will have to wait for after I get there). Now that we get to officially consider ourselves empty nesters (again) we do not need two thirds of what we have for our kitchen. We don’t need extra beds and furniture and I do hope to move into a smaller and easier to take care of place. More importantly I want a place that comfortably on fits two. Our children are all adults and though I adore each and every one of them I don’t really want to live with them anymore. Plus, they don’t need to live with parents and have parents disturbing there lifestyles. It isn’t right.

I am excited about the changes in our life. I get to explore a whole new part of the country and in doing so I will have much more to write about. I can’t complain about having income again either.

To Keep or not to Keep….That’s the Real Question

By the end of today I will have a move schedule for packing  and loading and then leaving. I get to think about prep right now and I have already taken a few small steps to prepare. I began of all places in the bathroom. It is time to toss all of those less than half full bottles of this and that. I am trying to use stuff up before the packers get here so I can toss the empties. I sorted through all of the hair stuff and am surprised at how much I have in the way of bands, elastics, brushes, and combs. I think most of that has to go. I experiment a lot with combs and brushes and end up with many I never use more than once or twice.

Next stop is the kitchen. The things I use the most in the kitchen are keepers of course.  I have a ton of things I haven’t nor has my husband used the whole time we have been in this home. Part of that is that this is our daughter’s house and we have been more or less extended stay guests for just shy of two years. She bought this house two years ago and we moved in using our things because our daughter is a single professional and has no kitchen items of her own at all. I will be spending this afternoon listening to an audio book and sorting through all of this stuff. There is more in storage too. Sigh!

We have living room furniture that has to go to the dump. I refuse to haul it nearly all the way across country in the state it is in. The couch and love seat has broken springs and could not support a feather much less this hardy body of mine much longer. It is definitely time to replace them and the city collectors are hauling them away on Friday. Yay!  Again, there is more unneeded furniture in storage to be addressed as well. I just don’t want to haul it over land from NC to NM. I will rid these things later this week when the DH and I go start sorting through the storage space. The things located in the rented storage space have not seen the light of day in the two years since we put them there. I barely remember what is actually there. I suspect we can divest of most of it with little pain. At least I can. There are some pictures and things I know I want to keep and some kitchen stuff I stored to keep out of harm’s way (my adult children are hard on my things). I am hoping this will be the lightest load we have ever had to move.

So wish me luck as I try to pare down what is a long life of accumulation. I hope I can let it go or be allowed to let it go since it is not all mine. The hubby is rather attached to a lot of things and we have always hauled it around. Don’t ask what these things are but there is a lot of it. LOL!