It took two full weeks before we were in circulation again.

Weather Shocks

Having spent months in gorgeous, stable eighty-degree weather in South Florida, we suddenly had rapidly fluctuating weather, frequently going from warm spring-like days to bitter-cold and windy days overnight, then back again. It wreaked havoc with us, given how tired we were.

Privacy Fishbowl

Back in Delray we often joked that our social life was Craigslist and FreeCycle, except for Alex’s Improv nights in our last few months. Especially towards the end, we saw very few people, we did only errands, and even errands were pretty infrequent until the last mad frantic days.

The sudden plunge from our situation in Delray, where we were very private, almost secluded, to being in the center of activity with no privacy except in the trailer, was another shock to our systems.

Overnight we’d lost our seclusion. We had gone from a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house with a pool and large yard on a very quiet street, having it all to ourselves, to sleeping on couches and living room floors, to a small travel trailer.

Even in the trailer Chelsea and I had no privacy from each other, as it was such a small living space, whereas we’d had our own private bedrooms and private bathrooms across the house from each other in Delray.

We’d been plunged into a privacy fishbowl.

When we were on the road before our downsizing saga, we were used to the lack of privacy, and it’s always more than offset by the companionship, adventures, and friendships. But it takes energy, we just weren’t used to it anymore, and we were whoppingly tired to boot.

Thank heaven our new built-in family was so supportive, generous, low-key, and friendly. We really needed it.

Internet Withdrawal

Gueydan was also our first level of withdrawal from Internet.

Because of our situation, Chelsea and I are heavy Internet users. We use it for keeping our website updated, bill-paying, research on gear and clothing and electronics, reading the news, finding Kindle books, and buying everything we need.

We used it to stream movies, to find the answer to any question we might have and for a million other reasons.

Now we’d gone from twenty-four/seven, plugged-in status with super fast DSL to slightly shaky wireless, and discovered neither of our laptops would work on wireless.

Instead of having on-demand Internet at our fingertips, we had either our smartphones or a short hike to the main house, dragging our laptops, pen drives, portable hard drives, plugs, cables and keyboards.

This came at a time when we needed Internet more than ever as we still had a number of critical tasks to finish from our move.

It’s Over

On the upside, we did have the growing and profound realization that our house had closed and our belongings are gone.

It’s over. For better or worse, that part of our lives is done. What got done was done and what got left undone was undone and did it matter in the big scheme of things?

The future is now and we’re building it day by day.

Collapsing Temporarily

The remaining few days of our first week in Gueydan we sat exhausted in our trailer, a bit stunned. But finally, needing to replace our dwindling food supplies, we roused ourselves by the end of that first week so we could make a Wal-Mart run up to Jennings with Kenneth.

The outing was just what we needed. Kenneth is funny and is great company and we have a comfortable history with him, so we could have long companionable silences or quiet conversation, whatever we wanted.

Thrilled with our purchases after stocking up at Wal-Mart, Kenneth suggested we stop for lunch. He had a place in mind right nearby, and even suggested the seafood po’boy on the menu.

It felt soooo good, even as tired as we were, to sit quietly and enjoy people-watching while having great food and easy conversation.

Kenneth treated us even further by taking the scenic long way home, around Lake Arthur.

That night Jaimie Snoddy came over intending only a short visit. We should have known that after not seeing one of our favorite people in three years, it wouldn’t be a short visit.

Though each of us was tired and aching by the end, from sitting so long in chairs not designed for it, she nonetheless ended up staying for four hours. We loved the chance to talk uninterruptedly and catch up on the events of the intervening years.

Given the events of the next few weeks it was a small miracle that we spent so much time together that night, as we didn’t see Jaimie again.

The next morning Chelsea got quite sick and didn’t recover for over ten days. It was the sickest I’ve seen Chelsea in years and the longest I think she’s ever been sick. She’d finally run out of energy and physical resources.

Over the next ten days we came out of the trailer so little that Kenneth and Krisy wondered if we were still alive, and threatened to send out search parties.

We still had pretty impressive leftover lists of to-do’s scrawled in tiny writing on our little yellow note pads, so I spent much of my time clearing items off that list – paying our closing bills, shutting off utilities (two weeks after closing!), forwarding our mail, ordering trip items.

Meanwhile I rested as much as I could, and did what I could for Chelsea.

It was truly a tough time for us.