T Minus 5....And Counting

New Year has come and gone. The time seems to be flying by. This weekend is the 5 week mark before we leave for Oregon. Joan and I are still working our regular 40 hour/week jobs here in Florida until March 9. That means the weekends are full of continuing efforts to get all the things done that need to be done before we leave. We've still got several small boxes of older photos that we want to digitize; a large box of music CD's that we need to filter down and either copy to Itunes or transfer to a thumb drive for future use. Friends and family to see......I'm not sure the list of things to do is getting smaller!


Terri, Joan, Lisa, Dottie

 Joan's birthday is this week and she, her sister and their girlfriend all took a long weekend to visit their friend Terri in Seattle. I guess you could call it a scouting trip, but they've been taking a 'birthday' trip for the last several years going to Atlanta and Albuquerque on previous trips. While she was gone I mounted a rack on top of the motorcycle trailer for our ladder and kayak. When we were downsizing back in August we traded an elliptical exercise machine for a tandem kayak. After a couple of trials with the kayak I'm thinking it's a little too big for a single person to manage; and I'm fairly certain Joan may want to get in some paddling when I may be interested in riding. So we're strongly considering trading the tandem for a couple of smaller kayaks. We'll have room on the trailer and smaller kayaks will definitely be more manageable for individual outings.

Joan and I have updated our wills and are preparing our income taxes as we hope to complete them before we leave. We scheduled appointments with our financial advisor and applied for health insurance with BCBS. Joan is also planning a short trip to NC to see her brother before we go. Joan is the oldest of 7 siblings; 4 live close by here in central Florida and 2 are out of state. She's also planning another sleepover with her grand kids. Leaving the families behind is going to be hard for both of us. I play on a softball team with both my sons each week; and usually get to have lunch with them and/or my parents at least once a week. Not seeing them for who knows how long is going to be tough on me. Same with Joan and her family.

Her grandsons, ages 5 & 9 stayed with us a couple of weeks ago and she was showing them a map of the US and helping them understand where we were going when I overheard the following...."Nana, aren't we going to get to spend the night anymore?"....followed shortly by "Nana, aren't you going to come see us anymore?"....quickly followed by "Nana, are you crying?" I've got to change topics here before I begin to mist up.

I thought I was down to my last softball tournament as there is only the February Over 50 tournament scheduled before we leave. But what to my wondering eyes should appear but a text from our coach stating that we will be playing in a charity tournament next week. Yahoo! Another chance to run in the sun.

Joan and I are planning a last little soiree to see family and friends before we go. Our last weekend in town we're moving the MH out to the lake and hosting a GoodBye party. So if you're in central Florida and would like to stop by on St. Patrick's Day, drop us a line and we'll give you the 411.

T Minus 5 weeks and counting...No! That can't be right! I've still got too much to do!