Emotional Week

It's been an emotional week for us as we're cleaning out the house we've lived in for 19 years.  I look at each item and say to myself, "Does this item bring me joy?"  Then if it does, I keep it and if not then I find a way to get rid of it.  If I'm keeping it, then where will it be stored is my next decision.  We're storing some stuff with family, some in a storage shed at our house and the boat and camping gear in a storage garage in Boulder City near the lake where we water ski.   

Over the weekend we went to Lake Mead to do some water skiing and spent time thinking about our friend who committed suicide on Good Friday of this year.  He lived in Tucson and would meet us at the lake over the years.  It was sad to know he won't be joining us camping and on the boat anymore.  Him and I were designing some shade cover for when we eat lunch on the boat and I made a prototype over the winter to review this summer.  I just don't have the heart to finish it now.   

Yesterday I emptied one of our spare bedrooms so that we can paint it in the coming days.  That was the place where we've stored "stuff" and now it's all in the living room either in a pile for me to review or Al's pile for him to look over and decide what to keep or get rid of.  There are lots of boxes of photos before digital and all those negatives!  And photo albums of our trips!  Hopefully I'll have time before we leave to pare down those boxes before.   

 

Nancy's Review Pile

I came across a bunch of VHS and other tapes that need to be copied to DVD's.  Some I've had done over the years such as our wedding and honeymoon videos but there are others that need to be copied.  Another project to add to the task list for this month.  

Al has spent the last week doing minor repairs around the house and copying all his CD's and DVD's to our computer's hard drive to take on the road with us.  That was a project!

With all the moving of stuff yesterday, I made my 10K steps just inside the house!

I think Al's Mom is having a hard time with the thought of us leaving even though we've been talking about doing this for a long time.  We're not the type of people who just talk.  If we says we're going to do something, we do it.  And, this lifestyle is not for her but it's one that we think we'll like.  We're giving ourselves a year to evaluate it and if we don't like it, we'll figure something else out.  We'll still have our house to come back to if needed.

I don't think anyone on my side of the family is surprised by our plan.  Heck, I moved all the way from Pennsylvania to California years ago and they know how much we like to travel.  This is just another crazy thing that Nancy's doing. 

We have had some fun too so it hasn't been all work.  Last night our financial adviser, Marc Gallo, took us and some family and friends out to dinner to celebrate our retirements.  We've been working with Marc for about 7 years in preparation for this time.  It was a real nice time but we forgot to take a photo.  Thanks Marc for the fun time and our family and friends for celebrating with us!

This weekend we'll be attending a funeral for a 92 year old father of friends of ours.  He was a great guy and we're so happy we got to celebrate his 90th birthday with him a couple of years ago.  He kept in great shape and placed on a men's softball team into his 80's.  We've enjoyed so many good times with him over the years and will miss him. 

Well, that's what's on my mind today.  Today's project is to tackle cleaning out the office and adding to those piles in the living room.