When I look at the calendar and realize how much time has gone by since I last wrote, it seems impossible. Chelsea and I have been up to our eyeballs in getting things done, and time just seems to slip by. We’ve done tree trimming, cleaning, sorting, getting the pool back into swim-able condition, helped Alex’s girlfriend Amanda move apartments, and we’ve been getting things ready to sell. I also quietly celebrated my birthday – a decade birthday, the big 6-0.
Storage
We managed to sell a few of our items from the house, and then got our furniture and boxes out of storage before we had to pay another month. After a week of hard labor doing tree trimming and yard work and cleaning and moving things inside the house, we spent about five hours last Tuesday, just the two of us, moving boxes from storage in the midst of an awesome thunderstorm.
We pulled the van up to the outside of the storage unit access door, left all the doors open so we could easily load boxes, and headed inside to assess the condition of our unit. Delighted to see how clean and neat and organized Alex had left it after moving more things in for us last year in our absence, we happily started ferrying things out to the van. With our heads buried inside the darkness of the storage unit, we suddenly heard the ominous sound of thunder, followed immediately by raindrops hitting the metal roof.
We ran like mad for the van, quickly getting wet while we shut all the doors and rolled up the windows. We decided to keep unloading and to arrange things inside the storage building near the outer door, ready to be loaded into the van, while waiting for the storm to blow over. The storm lasted what seemed forever. There we sat, after doing all we could on this round, side by side on our 50 lb tent from our summer 2006 ride across the United States, staring at the metal corrugated walls, listening to the intimidating cracks of thunder and the heavy rain.
When the rain finally slowed to a drizzle, we started loading, but the skies looked pretty dark and grim. Hoping to get at least two loads done before it got too dark to see, we moved fast. Anyone watching the security cameras must have gotten quite a laugh. We were quite literally running down the hallways with the hand truck (much more slowly when they were loaded than unloaded!). We did manage to get two full vanloads out of storage, and get them unloaded in our house before the next round of storms hit. The first raindrops were hitting as we returned the van to our neighbor.
We’d only paid until Wednesday night, and Alex didn’t have to work Wednesday, so he graciously agreed to help us clear out all the rest of the boxes and the furniture. We didn’t get a start until about three in the afternoon, and once again rain threatened the entire time.
We worked incredibly efficiently (Alex’s amazing strength and all those years of moving experience really paid off), and though we finished after dark, we had everything from over two years of storage back in our house shortly after eight in the evening. We did need to ask our next-door neighbor for the use of his truck as we had one piece that just wouldn’t fit into the van. We asked if we could make another trip as well, and that did the trick for being able to finish all in one evening.
My birthday
We were so tired from all the work we’d been doing that I had no idea what I wanted to do for my birthday except go kayaking. I wanted to be back out in the silence and serenity of our beloved river. Alex arranged to have his girlfriend Amanda pick him up for work, so we got the car. We are usually at the river by eight a.m., but it was almost noon before we got there – we had errands to do first, and I confess to being cranky the whole time till we got there.
It was absolutely amazing and wonderful to see Eric and Mike again, at Canoe Outfitters. We kayaked there at Riverbend Park, renting our canoes from Canoe Outfitters (Eric is the owner), every week for over four years. It was always our respite from whatever was going on in the rest of our lives, and it was a chance to regroup. We always, always, always felt better after a day on the river.
The Loxahatchee is a gorgeous “primitive” north flowing river, winding through cypress knees, heavy undergrowth, and a shade canopy from stately oaks and cypress trees. It flows through Jupiter out to the ocean at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. The section we kayak is a narrow, winding, twisty part of the river, loaded with alligators and birds. On a regular basis we’ve seen baby raccoons, deer, wild pigs, otters, blue herons, huge great egrets, owls, cardinals, blue jays, wild turkeys, sand hill cranes, cormorants, cardinals, belted kingfishers, a wide variety of amazing woodpeckers, and dozens more.
We’re on the river about four to six hours a day, going over two dams in the process, and often going farther downriver to a secluded spot known as Governor’s Dock. We always bring lots of water with us, and we pack lunch. When we reach our farthest point, we hang out for as long as we can, having lunch and just being quiet, trying to spot as many things as we can, letting the cares of the world melt away.
We’ve seen the river go through many profound changes. The hurricanes from 2004 and 2005 destroyed the shade canopy, drove most of the wildlife away (or killed it), wiped out the gorgeous undergrowth and clogged the river itself with debris from fallen logs and branches. Then the droughts kicked in, and many times we’d be hauling our kayaks along a dry and sandy river bottom, as there wasn’t enough water to even float the kayak.
We haven’t been on the river now for over two years, and we were overjoyed to see how healthy it is. The shade canopy and undergrowth are back to pre-hurricane levels, and the river is running high from all the rain. We had a fast run downriver, but the current was so strong that the kayaks felt squirrelly, and we really had to work. That meant that we had a good strong current against us on the way home, too. Being so tired from all the moving and cleaning and tree trimming, we opted for stopping at the second dam – a short day for us.
A big part of our days on the river is seeing Eric and Mike, and having our weekly chats at the end of the day. We have sorely missed the guys. Thursday was no exception to the rule – with over two years to catch up on, we talked both before and after our run on the river. By the time we reached the car at the end of the day, my whole attitude had changed. All our stress had gently dissolved, and we were relaxed and ready to face the world again.
If you ever get a chance to be near Jupiter, definitely stop by Riverbend Park and get Eric and Mike to set you up on a canoe or kayak. Of all the places we’ve been and seen, this part of the Loxahatchee River is still our favorite.
Downsizing
It’s a good thing we had so much fun and relaxation on Thursday, because on Friday we leaped right into opening boxes and getting things sorted and ready for sale. The prior week we’d already cleaned up and listed our paper shredder, Yamaha piano keyboard, our freezer, the air hockey table and our generators on Craigslist. The keyboard and freezer and paper shredder went immediately.
It’s an astonishing amount of work to downsize. First comes the decision of what to sell or clear out, and nine out of ten times, that’s an emotional process. Memories kick in right away, and then come the “what-ifs”. Then comes the stage of “but I love that…! I know I haven’t used it in ten years, but…”. After that comes the questioning process: Can we easily replace it? Does it have positive sentimental value? Does it have financial value?
This is our third year in a row of going through this, so we’re getting clearer and more efficient. We’ve discovered that many of the things we have, no longer represent who we are. Other things have an emotional tug, but we realized in many cases it was negative emotion. Do we really need to keep the hospital bracelet from when Chelsea was admitted for her brain injury? All it brings back are very painful memories. Do we really need to keep letters written during extremely painful break-ups of relationships?
On the other hand is the inexpensive angel doll we got at Wal-Mart a few years ago on Christmas Eve. We had no money that year, and weren’t able to get a tree until Christmas Eve. We got the last tree on the lot at eight p.m., a gorgeous ten-foot tree, for only ten dollars, because someone hadn’t come by to pick it up. We headed off to Wal-Mart to get something to put on it.
We spotted the display of really pretty angels, and spent an hour trying to decide which one to get. I was convinced that one of them was different than all the rest, and Chelsea and Alex were dissolving into laughter at my firm determination that this one was different from the rest. Then Alex took the candy cane decorations and started hobbling around as if on crutches. Within minutes things deteriorated; we were laughing so hard we could hardly breathe, and it just kept going.
That doll still sits in our living room, and it made the short list on this last round, because every time any of us looks at it, we remember that incredibly funny night.
Once we’ve made the decision about what goes, then we have to decide whether it’s FreeCycle, Craigslist, EBay, neighbors, consignment shops or a garage sale. If we post on FreeCycle, then we have to prepare for a flood of emails, giving directions to our house, and being around for people to pick up.
If it’s EBay or Craigslist, we have to clean the item thoroughly, take clear and attractive photos of each item, do research online to find out how to price it and what else is available, find the photos on the hard drive and label them, write up an ad that is good enough to convince someone to buy, and then post the ads online.
After the ads are posted we have to be prepared for the emails, answering questions, negotiating prices, giving directions, and arranging for viewing, payment and pickup, or arrange for shipping. On EBay we then have to go back and give feedback.
Then if the items don’t sell, we have to re-do the ads, re-post, and possibly change the price and description.
For consignment shops we have to find a suitable shop, ferret out what the shop would take, find out their policies, get to the shops, and negotiate the deal.
For garage sales, we have to set aside everything to sell, clean it and price it, advertise the sale, get someone to help us and be sure we have change and so on, and commit a day to just sitting and dealing with hagglers.
The whole process is incredibly time-consuming and exhausting.
We’ve opted for avoiding EBay this year, as they’ve gotten expensive and a lot less friendly to small individual sellers. Craigslist is more popular now, and it’s free, but it’s not as well organized or user-friendly as EBay is.
We’ve already gone through our third round of posting on Craigslist, and we still have a long list of items yet to post. I’m finding we need to take a break of a few days in between, as we get so tired out doing it. It requires immediate feedback and lots of timely attention to detail.
Finally, we have to decide what to do when things don’t sell. Last year we opted to keep much of it, but that won’t work this year. We are starting the sales process early enough that we hope everything will move, otherwise some lucky souls on FreeCycle or lucky neighbors will benefit from our downsizing.
Though it’s been somewhat painful and definitely tiring, we are very happy to be cleaning out our lives. We’d much rather get something out of moving the goods onward, if not financially, then at least knowing that someone else is truly enjoying what we aren’t using.
Fixing up the house
In addition to the downsizing, we’ve continued to fix up the house for sale. I’m sure we’ll have to do a short sale, but Alex no longer wants the responsibility of maintaining roommates and a house. The thought of a smaller apartment where someone else has all the responsibility is sounding really good to him right now.
I never wanted to be in suburbia anyway, but after our long adventure overseas, I wanted a house that Chelsea and Alex could be in through their high school and college years. We’ve succeeded at that, we’ve had a wonderful and eventful and memorable time here, and we are all ready to move on. I have come to be terribly tired of the constant maintenance – it’s not what I want to do.
Chelsea and I had a lot of time on the road to think about what we want to do, and we are very clear that we want to go ‘lean and mean’ for the foreseeable future. We want nothing that we have to ‘worry’ about except being on the road, having our adventures, and writing about our adventures.
We still have a lot of small things to do, like fixing the rollers on the sliding glass door, fixing a couple of plumbing leaks, fixing a toilet, painting a room, and getting the pool ready for swimming. We are also selling our hot tub, and that needs to be thoroughly cleaned.
Bike ride
We did manage to get out on a twenty-four mile bike ride a week or so ago. It was breathtakingly beautiful. We rode from home to the Boynton Inlet, and watched the fishermen for a while. After seeing so much of the muddy Gulf Coast waters the last year and a half, it’s unexpectedly wonderful to see the gorgeous colors here in Florida.
The road (A1A) has also been widened, so for the first time we have a true shoulder to ride on, and pavement that’s still in good shape. It was heavenly to be back on the bikes, and heavenly to see the ocean and lush greenery and colors here.
It felt like old times as we hung out over the bridge watching the fishing charters go out – the Lady K and Sea Mist III.
Upcoming week
Alex left with Amanda today to visit his dad in California, so we have access to the car all week. We’re definitely going kayaking again, twice if we can; we are doing errands in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami Beach; and we’ll see Paul and Denise and Chandler (my oldest son and family) in Ft. Lauderdale.
We are intending to finish going through the rest of the boxes (we’re well along the way) and have the items we’re keeping all boxed up again. Everything else will be organized for how we’re moving it on and out, and we’ll plan to have a yard sale within two weeks. We’d love to have all the moving, boxing, and packing done before Alex gets back.
There’s lots more to say, especially about how different Florida feels now, and how it feels to be home here – what’s different and what’s the same – but we have more packing to do. Tomorrow is a big errand day, from here to downtown Delray Beach, down to Dania Beach and Miami Beach (we’ll visit an old friend in South Beach), coming back through Ft. Lauderdale.
We need to spend tonight getting things ready for tomorrow, and we have someone coming to look at our tent for sale.
We didn’t get much sleep last night as we stayed up late working, then spent time talking about strategy and scheduling. I awoke after only forty minutes of sleep when Alex got home at 2:15, and was up until after four a.m. Then Alex awakened us at eight this morning with a kiss on the cheek and warm bagels and cream cheese, along with keys to the car. He and Amanda were on their way to the airport.
So we’re pretty sleepy today. It’ll be a really early night. Tomorrow we’ll try to find wireless and get some photos up for you, too.
Signing off from Delray Beach…