Transition
I've been officially unemployed, aka retired, for 2 weeks. I've been in Florida for 1 week. It has occurred to me that this is going to be a transition - a BIG one on every level. But I love learning new things. I actually enjoy taking a trip with a specific destination in mind only to end up somewhere else entirely. So long as I can keep learning and keep a sense of adventure and a sense of humor, I think this will be okay. I've been here a week and so far, so good. But how much damage can a person do to themself in just one week?
The distance from Poulsbo, Washington to Cape Coral Florida is 3,273 miles. If you were to examine a route map, it is almost a straight diagonal from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the continental United States. When making a life change, why not go big?
After weeks of making calls to pin down the moving company and the auto transport company and getting nothing more than an estimated (give or take a few days) pick up date for my car and household goods, I had just about thrown in the towel. Anxious because I had given notice on my Poulsbo home and having nowhere else to stay, I finally got the call from the movers with 2 days notice. I got up at 7:00 Friday morning, tore my bed apart and packed it. The movers arrived at 8:00. While they started loading the truck, my wonderful son-in-law Rod and I scurried around topping off the yet-to-be sealed boxes. The auto shipper showed up at 9am (surprise!) and had my car loaded and on the road in minutes while it took the movers two and half hours to completely load the truck. At that point, Rod and I hadn't purchased airline tickets, not knowing when we would be able to exit, but, lo and behold, he found two seats available on a red eye flight that same night, and we snagged them. (There is an additional complication to this part of the story in the form of Duff, the anxiety-ridden, 3-legged cat. I'll tell that story another time.) With the car and the household goods gone by 11am, we finally had a bite of breakfast, then spent the afternoon cleaning the empty house and headed to SEATAC.
I thought we were leaving for the airport too early but, as it happened, the weather turned and a major hailstorm came in, causing traffic on the freeway to come to a dead stop. We got there with not much time to spare. By the time my flight took off at 9:30pm, there were several inches of hail on the runway. Summer has come to a sudden end in the Pacific Northwest. And...it's off to hot, sunny Florida, just in time.
Up next: How Rod and Duff-the-cat got to Florida.
The distance from Poulsbo, Washington to Cape Coral Florida is 3,273 miles. If you were to examine a route map, it is almost a straight diagonal from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the continental United States. When making a life change, why not go big?
After weeks of making calls to pin down the moving company and the auto transport company and getting nothing more than an estimated (give or take a few days) pick up date for my car and household goods, I had just about thrown in the towel. Anxious because I had given notice on my Poulsbo home and having nowhere else to stay, I finally got the call from the movers with 2 days notice. I got up at 7:00 Friday morning, tore my bed apart and packed it. The movers arrived at 8:00. While they started loading the truck, my wonderful son-in-law Rod and I scurried around topping off the yet-to-be sealed boxes. The auto shipper showed up at 9am (surprise!) and had my car loaded and on the road in minutes while it took the movers two and half hours to completely load the truck. At that point, Rod and I hadn't purchased airline tickets, not knowing when we would be able to exit, but, lo and behold, he found two seats available on a red eye flight that same night, and we snagged them. (There is an additional complication to this part of the story in the form of Duff, the anxiety-ridden, 3-legged cat. I'll tell that story another time.) With the car and the household goods gone by 11am, we finally had a bite of breakfast, then spent the afternoon cleaning the empty house and headed to SEATAC.
I thought we were leaving for the airport too early but, as it happened, the weather turned and a major hailstorm came in, causing traffic on the freeway to come to a dead stop. We got there with not much time to spare. By the time my flight took off at 9:30pm, there were several inches of hail on the runway. Summer has come to a sudden end in the Pacific Northwest. And...it's off to hot, sunny Florida, just in time.
Up next: How Rod and Duff-the-cat got to Florida.
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