Did I really just post again?

That's right! Two days in a row, Yo!

So after writing yesterday that things were in a holding pattern I got to looking at a calendar and realized it's actually time to start getting my ass in gear.

The campground officially opens in 6 weeks, but I can get in early (any time after Feb 1st, but it's waaay to cold here now). I need to get in early. My site is quite large, but it's kind of a strange configuration and positioning the MH so the utilities work and it can conveniently be taken in and out throughout the summer will be tricky. Right now it is just backed into the middle of the site for the winter. It'll be easier, and no doubt much less embarrassing, to maneuver her into the best position while the campground is mostly empty and there are less witnesses!

So after looking at a calendar last night I decided that my 'moved in by' date should be March 15th.

That's 4 weeks away. Assuming the weather cooperates (I know - fat chance right?), I'll start on the 8th by reinstalling the batteries, positioning her in the site.. and again, depending in the weather, possibly de-winterizing her. The weekend of the 15th I'll move the remainder of my stuff in .

March 8th is only THREE weeks away! That means only two free weekends before things start to get interesting again!

Holy crapola!

I think I see a light in the tunnel. I hope it's not a train!

I'm sensing a pattern!

I didn't think blogging regularly would be easy.. I tried once before during a short road trip and figured that out!

Turns out I was right.. Kudos to all the bloggers that manage regular posts.. I'm going to stop apologizing for my lack of posts and hope things get better as things move along..

Right now things are kind of in a holding pattern any way. The motorhome is sitting, winterized and waiting for me at the campground. I've visited a few times over the last couple months to run the engine a bit and check on things but I've still got another month or so of winter before I can move in.

And a hell of a winter it's been here on the east coast.. Probably the worst/most snow we've had in a season in a few decades. Perfect. Why would I expect anything less?!?!?!?

I'm muddling through by telling myself it's ok, it's my last one!

I hate to wish my life away.. but I'll be glad when this winter is over and I can move into the motorhome and begin the second phase of preparing for takeoff.. Which is still scheduled for late November, right after the Thanksgiving holiday...

Woot!

Happy New Year!

I know, I know... It's been a long time again!

Time has just flown by..

By November 30th my house was empty, cleaned, and 99.9% of my un-necessary stuff gone! I gave a ton of stuff away, but it went to good people or Purple Heart and I had just lost patience with selling stuff. Even a few things I had listed and inquiries about on Craig's List I ended up responding with... "If you can use it, come and get it - Merry Christmas even if its not your holiday!" That actually felt pretty damn good! So in the end everything that needed to get gone, got gone in time!

In the last hours of my last day at the house I had a bit of a panic attack about moving in with my girlfriend for three months. I love her dearly, like a sister... But it's been a long time since I've lived with anyone (other than people I've allowed to stay in my home), I'm a bit of a loner at times... And I have two dogs! I wasn't really sure how things would go and didn't want to risk f'in up a good friendship. Also I kind if felt like this was my journey and it WAS possible for me to move the motorhome to another campground, very close to my job, and move in now. In the end... After talking to the campground owner (yes it was possible) and my sister and Jerry... I decided since I'd already winterized and de-batteried the motorhome I was being silly and should just relax and stay the course I had plotted.

Good decision. My dogs love Cindy and adjusted pretty quickly. They miss their fenced yard, and don't appreciate being walked instead of running around a yard, but they need to get used to that anyway! They will not have free rein at the campground, on the road, or in the desert!

It's also good for me and Cindy.. I can help her with some projects, we both have some company, and she doesn't have to drive to my house all the time like she used to!!! Hahahaha

She has even decided that she'd like a dog (or two?) of her own! And is making a trial run by watching and walking my babies for two weeks while I flew to TX to visit with Jerry over the holidays!

I've been here just over week and will be here till this Sunday when I'll fly home and resume life in the frigid NE! The weather here this year has pretty much sucked, but its warmer than PA and I'm with Jerry, who I haven't seen since September. I'm happy and blessed to be here.

Tonight we have grand plans to hang out quietly together, watch some movies and the ball drop.. And if its not raining, maybe go fishing in the morning. Or not, who knows!

Anyway... I hope everyone else is having a safe and Happy New Year and I'll try to keep a better and more up-to-date journal here in the new year! Still much work to be done before take-off next fall! BTW... Targeting Black Friday for 'head out on the road' day!! :)

Toodles,

M

The Not Quite an Update

Well damn.. It's really been over a month?!?!?!?

How the hell did that happen?

I'm not prepared to write a full update, but that's because I have not been sitting in my laurels! And most nights I'm exhausted.

Emptying your life of 30 adult, child raising, yrs worth of crap is time consuming, emotionally draining, scary, exhausting, physically tiring damn hard work, enlightening, inspirational, uplifting, totally awesome and personally satisfying. I feel like I have accomplished some major shit here. All.. well, mostly by myself.

I need a nap.

My house is almost empty. Of personal things, anyway. By the end of this weekend when I take what's left to an auction there will be nothing left to do here but a last cleaning.

The motorhome is stored for the winter. I originally rented a spot at a storage lot, but ended up finding and renting a site in a campground for next summer - and was able to store it on my site for the winter cheaper than the original spot, so there she waits. I decided to winterized her myself, don't ask me why.. still not sure if that was worth it. Probably. Her plumbing is filled with pink yumminess, her tanks are empty, plastic covered boards under her sneakers and batteries pulled. Not bad if I do say so myself... Also everything I'm keeping but don't need for the winter is moved into her, and I accomplished it all while in the midst of the 'get everything you own gone' crunch time too!

So that's where I am...

This part will all be over in less than two weeks. I just keep telling myself that.

The dogs are a little squirrelly.. Trying to keep things normal for them is impossible right now... And truthfully.. It might be a damn long time, if ever, before 'normal' can be defined for us again!

Have I mentioned before that I have dogs? I do. :) Two of em. I'll tell you about them sometime, but they deserve their own post.

Toodles for now... Need sleep.

Ok, so it's been a wee bit of a while...

The purging continues...

Maybe it's not as easy as I thought it would be.  Sometimes I think I'm doing really well.  I do have a plan after all... and things are moving out the door.  Just sometimes not as fast as I think they should be.

It is overwhelming at times.  Will I get it all gone in time?  Two days from the 5 week mark, and the only thing I'm sure about is that I sure as shit hope it's all GONE when it needs to be gone by.

I stayed home last weekend, and took the time to load as much as I had ready, into the RV.  Sunday afternoon I moved her to the secure storage spot I had reserved.  I'm staying home this weekend too.  The deciding factor is I'm first on-call this weekend at work.  It's our slow season, but I didn't want to deal with the possibility of emergencies while I was trying to winterize the rig.

Instead I'm going to take her out one final time next weekend.  Sunday afternoon before leaving the campground I'll winterize the rig and park her for the winter.

In the mean time I'm purging at home.  I missed scheduling a pickup this past week, but have been back at it and already have 10 boxes ready to go out for Purple Heart next week.  I also have quite a large trash pile set out right now for tomorrow's trash, and also broke down a shitload of boxes to go out with the recycling this week or next.  Things are starting to look sparse around here.... sort of.

Still a long way to go...

On a totally HAPPY note... my partner in crime might just be heading back my way!  :) 

Shhhhhhh

I tried to post over the weekend, really I did...

I started a post Saturday evening from the campground I ended up going to...  :)   but then Steve and Annette came by and I put it away...

Then I tried to finish that post last night.. was just about finished when I did something in blogger that basically wiped out my post...

Boo hoooo


I kind of lost my posting mo-jo at that point and went to bed without posting..

Maybe I'll re-write a more detailed post about the weekend but the upshot was...

Picked up the RV, brought it home, realized it was too damn nice out to sit at home and headed out to a campgroup.

My sister and a girlfriend went with me to pick her up, my sister rode back to my house in her with me (she was skeert!  my sister, that is! lol), and my girlfriend went camping with me..

Steve and Annette stopped by the campground later with Margaritas!

It was a good first run, and I think I'll take her out again this weekend too!  Even though I am on call.. blech!

Anyway.. that's the shortened version of my original post..

Now back to my local purging of crap!

Toodles,

Rae

Ready or Not, here She comes!

Sooo.. two days from now my new baby will be parked, very temporarily, outside!

Holy Crap!

I was originally planning to run about 10 miles up the road from the dealership, to a campground I'm a little familiar with.  I'm considering a seasonal site there next year, and it's close, easy, and has hookups so I could run through lots of 'firsts'... kinda semi-privately but with help close at hand if necessary! Yo Steve and Annette!  LOL  But the weather is crappy this weekend so I'm bagging that. 

I'm just going to bring her home and park her here till at least Sunday night, and move a bunch of 'stuff' that's destined for the new digs anyway into her now.  That way I won't be tripping over it while I'm getting rid of everything else, and I won't have to schlep it with my car to where she's being stored for the winter.  I at least want to get the stuff that's already been sorted and packed into her now.

I've mentioned getting rid of my stuff a few times.  When I decided to re-start this blog it was because I had always wanted to record this change in my life and the process of it all.  I thought getting rid of my stuff could be one of those agonizing things that fast forward.. can be a great laugh and learn up the road.   That's not happening.  Turns out I don't mind getting rid of my stuff at all.  Ha!  Nothing agonizing about it so far!  And I have a lot of things that I love.  But they're things... and I'm damn tired of carrying them around!  Good-bye, love ya lots!

I have to admit I do have a plan for my dearest things.  My dearest things are mementos and pictures and yes.. school projects (I admit I have a whole box of public school fired ceramics that my children made in school) and things of that nature that I just CANNOT throw out.  A weakness. 

I decided that my children, who are 25 and 29, were old enough to take ownership of this stuff.  At least the stuff that was from their childhood, yanno?  I split the shit, er... stuff up and made a box for each of them.  Surely they would want it to someday show their children.  Right? 

Well... Apparently, Not so Much. Yo.

Throw it out they told me!!!  (mostly of their old school stuff, not photos)  No matter, I was JUST as devastated!  Those lil bastahds!  How could they?  This is important stuff!  So I desperately needed a plan.  Fortunately, I'm good at plans!  :)

Mahahahahahahaa

My daughter recently moved home for a month, before moving to Brazil for a year.  Knowing full well that I was selling, tossing, donating, giving away and purging everything I own... she had the audacity to leave me with several pieces of furniture, a sleeping bag and bedding, and a huge, very heavy tote of personal things!  All at my soon to be vacated house!  Oh she thought that was hilarious...   LOL

To her credit, there are arrangements for her father to pick those things up, and store them at his home until she returns from her current adventure.  I have a very adventurous daughter!  :)  She totally rocks, BTW!  Anyway.. it's all good:  When she eventually returns from her globe trotting... there will be a tote or two more included in the 'stuff' at her dad's that will look a tad familiar when she looks inside!  Part 1 of "Plan Stuff".

My son's totes are even easier.  lololol  I'm just gonna give them to his paternal grandparents!  They'll love the conspiracy, and he'll end up with them eventually down the road... hopefully he'll enjoy the flashbacks before THROWING THEM OUT?!?!?  The finale of "Plan Stuff"!

Anyway.. with a fairly safe plan for those types of things, I'm pretty ok with getting rid of most everything else.  I've been planning this for a while.  I relocated back to this area where I grew up and raised my kids 5 yrs ago.  I knew then that this was the plan and got rid of a heaping load of crap then.  Everything I've acquired since then has been with the knowledge that it had better be damn useful or easily gotten rid of..

This is what I've done:

I had some nice antique furniture that I sold last month on Craig's List.  I had complete bedroom and dining sets that were going to be much easier to move in decent weather.  I have a three bedroom house full of furniture, so was able to sell those things now and with a little shifting of other things, no loss convenience wise.

My neighborhood had a Whole Neighborhood yard sale that I also advertised on Craig's List and put a TON of shit out, priced to sell.  Much shit gone.

I've sold quite a bit of things on eBay over the years and am selling individual items that will do best there through them.

Purple Heart is my friend.  My Best Friend.  They pick up in my neighborhood on Tuesdays, and I've become a regular on their weekly route.  I've set a personal goal of getting rid of, or at least packing up to be donated, a minimum of one full box of shit, er... stuff a week!  I average more than that.  I think they love me.

Now that I will have possession of the new Digs BEFORE I move out of the house, I'm seriously considering having an "everything in the house must go" sale in mid November to get rid of everything I'm not keeping.  Then I'll be packing up everything left afterwards for a Monster Purple Heart pickup, scrubbing the place clean and running for my life! 

I soooo can't wait till this is all done... and then I can look back, laugh and learn from it all!

Toodles,

Rae

Speaking of Tools..

I only have a few.  I mean that literally, not sarcastically. 

Until 9 months ago my entire collection, or toolbox, consisted of a hammer, a few stray screwdrivers (definitely at least one each Phillips and Flat!), a spark plug wrench and an adjustable wrench that is way to big to be useful for anything.  I can't remember ever using it. 

There was no "toolbox"

The spark plug thingie and at least one screw driver were out in the garage and the hammer, another screwdriver or two, and the huge adjustable wrench were on the basement landing shelf.  I also have a micro screwdriver/allen wrench set.  The kind you use for laptops/computers.  I actually use that more than anything else. 

And then.. Enter Jerry!  LOL  He's the guy who NEVER 'Calls the Guy'!!  There is one exception (isn't there always?!?) Anyone with a best friend who is a master mechanic would be a fool not to consult and/or defer to superior automotive talents, yes?  So he does call Steve, The Auto Guy, for advice.  Never really known him to call anyone else. 

Anyway, on the other end of the scale.. I totally am the reason 'The Guy' exists.  I have no macho ego to prevent the call, and I don't really know how to do anything mechanical.  I 'Call the Guy' regularly.  That makes me an economical asset! I regularly support financial growth in my local economy.  Yippee for me right? Right?  Blech..

So like I said, enter Jerry.  It took a while for the numbers to add up on paper because I wasn't expecting or looking for it.  But Daaamn! He fixed a lot of shit for next to nothing, and I was FIXED myself!  I want in on this deal!  Which basically means instead of Calling the Guy, I need to become The Guy!

And so a bit of a tool obsession began... 

Shhhh  no one realizes yet.. 

Please don't tell

Mahahahahahaha

Just like everyone else..

I think weekends are TOO SHORT!

This past Saturday was the first Saturday in a looong time that I didn't spend the day sorting, boxing, tossing and donating crap! 

Instead I spent the day in Philly where a friend of mine got Ink!   She had an older tat on her shoulder blade covered with a really nice green and purple dragon holding a butterfly.  Turned out really nice..

On Sunday I did do some more purging.  I went through about three boxes and ended up with one.. not bad for a half-hearted, quasi attempt, but then I went shopping!  lol

I actually did pretty good at only buying things I needed and was looking for.

My, yet to be named RV has twin beds instead of a queen in the back.  This works for me, as eventually one twin will be rebuilt into a full or queen along one wall and a desk will be put in place of the second bed.  This isn't scheduled to happen until next summer at the earliest tho, and possibly not until the following year when I'm on the road and catch up with Jerry.

I don't have any twin beds in my house, so no twin sheets. 

So I learned something this weekend too:  It is damn near impossible to get decent (by that I mean a thread count of 400 or greater) twin sheets!

I realize that it is mostly kids sleeping in twin beds, but seriously... is everyone bedding their kids in burlap these days???  Yeesh! 

I did finally find some at Target that were 'ok' .. after going everywhere! 

I hate shopping.. which is probably a good thing!

I also picked up a staple gun, staples, hoses and a few totes I needed.

I'm picking up the RV this Saturday and I've decided not to have them winterize it so I can use it a few times before putting her to bed for the winter!

I've decided that since I bought the damn thing, there's no time like NOW to start maintaining it my damn self.  Or at least trying...  Ha!

This should be fun.  I refuse to "Call the Guy".... at least not until I've screwed it up good myself first!

Have tools, will demolish!

I was wondering..

Is my sister still out there?

Well, I know yer out there... ya still reading?

Just in case you are, I wanted you to know:

I'm still the most ROCKINEST sister in the fam!


Bahahahahahahaaa


And I'd like to make a prediction:  within the next year, you'll be able to say... "I have camped!" 

And no, not at Camp Mariott!!
LOLOLOLOL  I may not be able to get you into a tent, but you had BETTER be willing to do a sleep-over with me.... and you just don't even worry about where you'll be waking up!  :)