Two Weeks – Two Months – Two Years

We’re having an interlude of family time and relaxation in the midst of our madness.  Both Ted’s father and my mother died in the last few weeks.  It’s been a lot to deal with in the midst of all the change and it will take us some time to come to terms with the losses.  Visiting the Brooks family in Sioux Falls is rejuvenating and is a much needed break. For this Wisconsin girl, the fresh snow on Christmas Day was welcome.  For Ted, it’s further motivation to get to Arizona.

A couple new developments:

I’m selling my car through a peer-to-peer service called Shift.  They’ve given me a base payment; I’ve given them my car, title, and power of attorney.  They’ll try to sell it for more than the base payment and we split the difference.  An exercise in trust, but it helped that my car qualified me for advance payment of the base amount.  Otherwise it would have required trust beyond my comfort level.  So far very impressed with the service.  Though sad to see them drive my car away.

The other bigger development is finding a home for Sunny.  We found some good people who can take her on January first.  She’ll be living in Oakland.  Many thanks to our friend Merrilee, who reached out to her neighbors via Next Door and happened to find a couple who had lost their tortie a few months ago.  Hopefully Sunny will help to heal that wound and they will give her a home to live out her remaining years.  So glad, but also so sad.

We’re less than a week away from our departure date, I have four more hours to work before I’m retired, and we’ve dealt with most of the pesky details — so we’ll curtail posts about the travails of preparation and our next post will be the first from the road.  Finally!