Ok. I was going to give you a long and happy rant about how I finally have MY house to MYSELF. Sounds like a cat doesn’t it? Purfectly happy without all those pesky humans about who don’t deliver food on demand or proper respect. But it seems like everyone is still confused on what is going on.
Point 1: We are not moving. Repeat. Not moving. We shipped household goods because I had a shipping entitlement. Normally you have to make a final shipment within 12 months of military retirement. Exceptions are ok in some circumstances, but the Kaiserslautern Office is not granting them to anyone remaining over here unless they are a government employee on orders. I, obviously, am not.
Point 2: The stuff, as I have aptly named it, is going to CA because George owns a house there. There is a large garage which will become storage for the foreseeable future. This will not create a problem because there is no car in the US. The Eldest and College Guy will be living in the house while pursing further education.
Point 3: Except for the occasional visit, I have no intentions of living there. And trust me, my adult offspring no more want to share a house with George & I than we want to share with them. It is one of the joys of being an adult – not living with your parents. The flip-side is that few parents want to perpetuate adolescence even one day beyond the biological minimum.
Point 4: George is still working in Switzerland. Our home will continue to be Heidelberg for several years. I have lots of traveling yet planned for the next couple of years and most involves Europe/Africa or arrivals/departures from same on ships.
So to sum up – stuff shipped. We aren’t moving. I would move to California and start paying state income tax because?????
Ok – on to the house. Today’s joy was to start on the kitchen and laundry. This was after I finished sorting out all the kids books and the left over boxes from the terrace. Several hours, a bit of screaming, and a late night snack later most of it was accomplished along with listening to a series of history lectures, dealing with audio files and knitting. Can’t forget the knitting.
Tomorrow I need to update Roll Calls for two cruises, finish the kitchen, see how many bags of trash can fit into the garage and drop off more books.
Next – the guess the book count list
Alison 4444
Carmen 4567
Cat – TNTC (but less than her, so I guess she is taking all the really high numbers)
April – 6289
Isobel – 4882
Mary – 5777
I dropped off 130 this morning. So that is 278 gone and no visible dent in the pile of boxes. I think I will take another couple of pictures of the incredible non-shrinking box heap in the morning. Seeing is believing.
