Finally! I am outa there! Officially “retired,” at least from that place. Who knows what might happen down the road, but for now I’m DONE. I can already feel the stress beginning to recede, although I suspect it won’t really hit me until Monday morning when I don’t have to wake to the alarm (no, I don’t think I’ve ever had President’s Day off). For the next several days, we’re basically going to relish this new chapter. THEN, it’ll be time to hit it, to get the Des Moines house emptied out. It’ll be a daunting task, but we’ll eat that elephant one bite at a time.
I only worked for about 2-1/2 hours today. Cleaned up my space and had one final meeting with Chucklehead to transition the proposal I’ve been working on over to him. (Heh). Then he said, “Feel free to go if you’d like.” The only good thing he’s ever said to me. Walking down to my car in 60° sunshine was surreal! And so wonderful! John came home pretty early this morning and I was tickled (and blown away) that he was able to load up our washer and dryer into the truck! Then we packed up a bunch of clothes and stuff and loaded it all into my car, gathered up the critters, and headed down to Harstine in separate vehicles. I really enjoyed the drive! It was shortly after noon and traffic was very decent (and actually marvelous in some spots). My car is not accustomed to going the speed limit (or above…!)
Unloading the washer and dryer hasn’t happened yet, and that could end up being a weeeee bit more difficult than loading it. Especially getting them inside the house. But John does have this hoist thingy and an awesome “appliance” dolly with large wheels that has saved his bacon with a number of uber-heavy items. It will be so amazing to be able to wash clothes here! Huge milestone!
So, Wylie will never cuddle with me in bed at the Des Moines house ever again. She’s now a Harstine cat (Mojo has been since last summer). I sure hope the two of them start getting along better. (I think Mojo has been feeling pretty territorial down here; he’ll now have to “share” full time).
We even had a fire on the deck tonight. It was a little short-lived because a breeze kicked up (a change in the weather is coming—back to wet), but it was still so nice! Pretty rare thing for this time of year.
Onward!
