6 Weeks to Move

I guess if I thought of this as a real move, I wouldn't have as many odds and ends left unpacked. Closing isn't for a week, so I will have time to come back and finish. If we were moving across the country or even more than an hour away, I'd had to have a better end-of-story plan. Empty At Last Ironically, tomorrow, the first day of no commute, Grant has to drive up to Fort Lauderdale to have his crown finished. He does deserve a crown for his hard work all these years, but this is, as you suspected, at the dentist. He had scheduled it to be done yesterday, while we were still close by, but the dentist office was without power! Are we being one with our Venezuelan neighbors who suffer electrical blackouts daily? I posted the charcoal grill, lawn furniture, porch bench, secretarial chair and sewing machine chair as free items on NextDoor yesterday afternoon. So far the bench has been picked up. Someone is coming for the grill this morning, and a woman says she ...

Yesterday and today, I hired my son’s girlfriend to help pack. What a godsend. She is efficient, fearless, and strong. Box after box packed, labeled, and taped shut. I bought a specific box for the smaller TV (the movers are taking the big TV off the wall and boxing it for an extra $35; money well spent), so she and I wrestled it into submission. Thank goodness we no longer have those massive, thick TVs. We did have to give in and watch the video to understand how to use the included foam corner protectors. Not intuitive, at least to us. Now it’s the last 10%. I’ve contended I should start a business named the Last 10% Solution that would pack the last, messy bits. I was so right. If someone knocked on the door and offered this service, I’d sign up, price be damned. Since that is unlikely to happen, I’m off to Total Wine, not for the bourbon that is tempting but for more boxes.

 Yes! After 35+ years of commuting, over 25,000 trips, with only 2 more days before we move, my husband was rear-ended on the way home from work yesterday. Fortunately, neither he and the driver that hit him were hurt. Even the cars were only dinged up. Unfortunately, now Grant's car alarm goes off when he opens his car door, and it continues to beep for a minute. Beep, beep, beep. It is really annoying. When he left this morning at 5:45, he drove off in a cloud of beep, beep, beep, getting quieter to me as he drove off. Of course, all our neighbors got to experience this too. Then, when he came home this afternoon, beep, beep, beep for the whole minute. At least tomorrow he won't be leaving until 9:00 AM for med labs so he can use my car. His car is a junker that we plan to donate to the local radio station since we are going to 1 car for the next year. Now it's just a little worse. That is actually amazing.

Wai'anapanapa State Park on Maui Back after spectacular hula, amazing vistas, and a fabulous visit with friends. We walked and swam a lot and pretended it was enough to overcome the shave ice at Ulani's , musubi at Merrie Monarch , and Kauai Pie ice cream cones at Lappert's in Wailea. It was not. At least we shared the medium sized.  I have moved into panic mode while being almost catatonic from the 14 hours of travel time. Going from Hawaii Standard Time to Eastern Daylight time is not pretty. I woke up at 1:00 am to obsess. Not helpful. This morning, I dragged myself out at 7:00, skipping the next-to-last Spin class, and began using the tried-and-true Flylady approach of setting a time for 15 minutes and tackling a project. Our workhorse still doing its share.  So far, I've gotten the living room almost completely packed and a good start on the white table, our workhorse that I am really going to miss. We made that table from an old sheet of pl...

The buyer has asked that the closing date be moved to the 16th. Good grief, will this ever actually happen? Good news, I think, is that the financing deadline has passed, so we get his deposit no matter what. That would pay for the condo rental for the year plus more we could use to travel. I also get another week to finish packing when I come back from Hawaii 🌺 On the other hand, I have to pay for home owners insurance until the closing and really should have the renters insurance start on the 9th.