Category Archives: moving

family, moving

Being Lazy Today

2 Comments
The mirror over the piano was tricky to hang, but the guys did a good job on it.

Yes, taking it easy today. Remembering, though, our service personnel who died while serving. No one in my immediate family did. Lynda had a great-uncle killed in the first day of fighting on Guadalcanal in WW2.

We just finished a busy three or four days. Our oldest grandchild, Ephraim, graduated from high school. The ceremony was Saturday evening. Uncomfortable stadium seating, lots of walking, some rain. But the accomplishment was excellent and I’m glad I was able to witness the event.

Also on Saturday, our son Charles and his husband came in for the graduation (also for a birthday in Mario’s family) and became our first overnight visitors since moving here. We went to the furniture store on Saturday and, with their help, finalized the purchase of living room furniture. It will arrive on Thursday.

We bought this grouping on our trip to Greece in 1988.

On Sunday, as Lynda and I skipped church to be with Charles & Mario, and to hang pictures. Or I should say I found pictures stuffed in packing boxes in closets and they hung them. I have no artistic sensibilities and Lynda has no energy. So I got the pictures out, fetched and handed tools, and they found good places and did the hanging. We concentrated on the living room and breakfast nook. With furniture selected, we knew what spaces we had to fill.

Once the furniture arrives, with the walls decorated in the room we use the most, it will seem less like camping out and more like home. There’s still a lot of pictures to hang, but we had done all we could and they are for other rooms that can wait another day.

Cloth items bought in China in 1983 on the left; our kids’ graduation photos on the right.

And this relatively small amount of exertion over a couple of days has worn me out. I expect to do relatively little today. Maybe some household budgeting. Maybe get through 20 or 30 pages in my current read. Re-stow a few boxes and photos; prepare other boxes to go out next recycling day. Empty one box of table games to put in closet spaces no longer occupied by wall hangings. Perhaps work a little on my three books of letters projects. Maybe write a letter. And watch some TV.

Try to come to Tuesday rested up, ready for regular routines with a smidgeon of helping a friend out with transportation to a couple of things.

 

movies, moving, Writing

Routines

Leave a comment

The worst part of moving, apart from downsizing to a house about 1/3rd of what we had, apart from going from a mostly rural area to a fully developed city subdivision, is trying to establish routines.

I am a creature of routine. Give me the same thing to do every day and I’ll be happy. Up at 6:30, work on writing, stock trading from 8:15 to 8:45, breakfast at 9:00, more work in the office (writing or household budget), reading at noon, lunch at 1:00, etc. I like routine.

Alas, my routines were stolen by our move from Arkansas to Texas.  For the first two weeks I did nothing but move and unpack boxes. At the two-week mark I was able to resume stock trading with a partially set-up office. Then a crisis of missing medications that took a few days to work out. Then I was able to resume my writing work, more editing at present as I’m trying to get previously written works ready for publication.

I’m slowly getting routines established. My reading place is now the screened patio instead of the sunroom. The Dungeon has been replaced by an office, now mostly fully set-up in the 3rd bedroom. My evening reading place is sprawled out on the living room floor while we are without easy chairs. Tuesday this week I was able to get the minivan registered. That’s one big, non-routine item I had facing me. Now I can concentrate on re-establishing routines.

Not so fast. On Wednesday I went through a pile of mail and worked on changing addresses, filing documents, and learning to use my bank’s remote depositing feature. Oh, yes, and using PayPal to pay a bill for the first time.

Routine is returning, though more slowly than I would like. I’ve figured out when I need to have outgoing mail for the mail carrier to pick it up. I’ve started to learn when local utility bills are debited. How long it takes to get to church to know when to leave home to be on time. I’m not sure when I’ll be ready to reestablish a routine for posting here, but I’m working on it.

moving, Writing

Progress?

2 Comments
It’s not The Dungeon, but it will have to do.

I haven’t written much about our time in Texas since our move. The first couple of weeks were overwhelming. Since then, we have become a little more settled, though we are far from being through with the move and set-up. Here are some bullet points.

  • We aren’t tripping over boxes. We still have many to unpack, but they are shoved against walls and out of the way, mostly in the dining room and the guest bedroom.
  • I’ve set up my office in the 3rd bedroom. No more Dungeon, I’m afraid. It’s nice to have everything on one level.
  • I’ve resumed writing work on a regular basis. This morning I finished the second editing pass through the last volume of my eight-volume Bible study series. One more quick read-through in a Kindle format then I publish. Then I need to decide on which of about five writing projects to do next. This week I replaced my ancient wireless keyboard, so typing should be easier.
  • Change of addresses are slowly being accomplished.
  • The refrigerator is slowly getting filled, as each shopping trip we buy an item or two that was left behind in the move. I haven’t felt much like cooking, but have prepared a few things.
  • Lynda and I have found time to walk a short way several days this past week. Maybe over time we can do more before summer heat and humidity move in.
  • We are slowly getting plugged in at church.
  • We’ve met three of the four neighbors that border our house. The fourth one always has vehicles in the driveway but never seems to be outside when we are.
  • I’ve been able to get in some good reading time, as well as resume correspondence.

That’s enough for now. I’ll give another update in a couple of weeks.

miscellaneous, moving

New Venue, Old Routines

Leave a comment

We are in our new house in Lake Jackson, TX. Many boxes are unpacked and broken down, but many more are pushed against walls, waiting their turn.  We haven’t found a few things, though every day, as a new box gets opened, we find something we’d been looking for and say, “Oh, that’s where that was.”

We still have no inside fridge, relying only on the old fridge we brought from Arkansas and set up in the garage. I had many other things to do so didn’t rush the refrigerator. But the estate sale at our house was last weekend netted what I hoped we would, so now we can go buy the fridge. Today I’ll visit a couple of places, and hopefully we will buy it and have it installed tomorrow.

Today is the first day for me to work in my office. It’s not fully set up, but it’s functional. I placed a few stock trades this morning and here I am writing a blog post. I’ll likely cut this short to see what more I can set up. It’s about time to take a look at income taxes, I have filing to do, and must find a few things yet.

So I’ll end this a little short. Time to get to my other work. Still thinking of a name for my office. “The Dungeon” won’t do anymore.

Decumulation, miscellaneous, moving

Driving Tomorrow

Leave a comment

Edit on Feb 16. Well, I never got this done in a timely manner. I’ll post it now for what it’s worth.

I’m actually writing this Tuesday morning, February 3 and  scheduling it to  post on Friday Feb. 6th. On Friday I get the U-Haul in the morning, the loaders load it in the afternoon, and on Saturday we drive. The following week, the estate sale people come in and whatever we leave behind will be sold the 13th-14th. The house should go on the market after that.

I’ll add an update on several days this week, at least until our internet is cut off, probably Thursday afternoon. I don’t yet have internet at the new house (investigating options), so I’m not sure when I’ll post again unless I write another one for posting during the dark time.

The Dungeon is all packed except for the modem, signal booster, and two mostly packed but not yet sealed boxes, waiting to see if I have any more small items to go in the top.

Tuesday, Feb 3. I woke at 3:45 a.m. and never got back to sleep. I read in the recliner for a while, in the last of the magazines I want to read and put in recycling before we leave. Then I tried to sleep, but couldn’t relax due to the massive amount of work yet to do. So I went out to the garage and worked on that. I had already packed my tools, but the box was too big. I got them re-packed in a properly sized box, boxed up the small amount of hardware I’m taking, pulled some shelf units out to the middle of the garage that I hope will fit in the truck, then went back in the house. I decided I won’t bring my drill, only the drill bits. I don’t know whether I’ll have to do any drilling. If I do, I will get a modern, cordless, chuck-less drill and let someone buy this old one.

Only three days left to pack a lot of stuff.

family, moving

The Time Is Getting Closer

Leave a comment
The mess is real. Oh dear me.

We move from NW Arkansas to Lake Jackson, TX either Jan 31 or Feb 7. Or maybe a day either side of that.

Where there once was a little organization there is now chaos. Where there was once order there is now…something, I suppose disorder is a good enough word.

But where there used to be areas jammed with stuff, there is now much less stuff. It may all be in disarray, but a lot of stuff is gone. Some was taken to Lake Jackson before Christmas. Some has been tossed out. Paper and cardboard have been recycled. One refrigerator was emptied and moved, the other is much reduced in contents as we consume what was in it. I wonder why we ever bought a 3-lb bag of frozen blueberries. They will be fully consumed by tomorrow. I took a package of what I can only call mystery meat out of the freezer last night. We’ll see shortly if it’s thawed enough to know what it is, and if we’ll be having it for supper tonight. The pantry is bordering on empty now, although there’s enough canned goods left to give us some interesting meals the rest of the way.

I’m not sure whether I’ll find the time to post again this side of the move, but maybe next Monday.