Transitions

Do NOT google that word! I'll save you the time. There are pages of various categories of transitions. Here is one that many of you may have recently encountered. One that sometimes comes after transitions from single to married; from free range newlyweds to new parents; from parents of teenagers to empty nesters; from productive member of the workforce to retiree.

That of the morning transition from horizontal to vertical.

Often this is forced upon me with some urgency as one of the larger leg muscles decides to wake me up by rapidly transitioning from totally relaxed to full cramping flexed. When this happens, my back has little say in the matter. The cramping leg is in total control. Up we go, now!

More often the transition is much slower, usually initiated by the bladder which has reached it's shot glass capacity. First, I throw the legs over the side to let gravity assist the transition to vertical. Simply let the body pivot on the upper legs into the seated position. Then work on actually standing up.

At this point the back chimes in with "not so fast", seems that the vertebrae need time and possibly several attempts to compress into a mode that doesn't resemble something way down that Darwinian chart of progression.You know, the one that covers all 6000 years since creation.

Right now you young snipper whappers are saying, "must be nice (sad) to have nothing better to do than spend your whole morning blogging about getting out of bed". I'm just trying to pass on the one thing we old farts are certain of. Take care of your body; it won't last long enough and it WILL get even.

Last week my health care provider informed me that I could no longer take any form of statin. Seems that they elevate my CK levels and are causing me joint and muscle pain. No kidding?

And one last thing, it may take up to two years to get them out of your system. WTF?

I think I'll go back to bed.

Donuts With Dad

After more rest, the Teague's dropped us off for the flight to Portland, and goodby Alaska (Did I mention, I already have my tickets to come back for the Red run).  We wouldn't have made it out without so much help from all our friends; it was almost as if they were anxious to facilitate our departure.  Side note to Larry: take care of that hand!  He did all the heavy lifting for us in their neck of the woods and his hand paid for it.

Recuperation continues in Portland.  Grandma stayed with Louis and Judy while grandpa went to "Donuts With Dad Saturday" with Papa and Nina at preschool.

Arriving.

The selection included some healthy stuff.

Then there was some reading in the loft

And a little feline theater. It was a one cat show.

Act two.  Many of the cats in the audience were held speechless with the suspense.

You can see what was her favorite part of the fare.

Then some out side time to burn some of that off.

Finally, one last performance on the big stage, where Nina elected a role as spectator.

Back home now to watch the Timbers game, played a few hours ago. 

Don't tell me the final score.

Homeless

It is done. For details, see previous post.

Dropped off the Subaru for loading in the container and now have no home or car.  Hopefully, the Teagues will baby sit us till we get on the plane.  Then we can begin the recovery (?) process of setting down new roots.  It really is a transplanting process; and like fish out of water, we won't breath that easily until those roots start to grow again.

I hear it is warmer down there.

Goodbye Home

It has been real..............ly  hectic.  But it is done.  Today we closed on the sale of our home for the last 19 years.  We had less than three weeks to pack it up and put it in a 40' ocean going container.

Here is the container nearly filling up the driveway.

It never would have happened without unbelievable help from our friends.  Most notably Tony and Dave. Here is Tony after all of the abuse was over.

All he had left to do was drive to the dump with a car full of stuff that we couldn't cram into the container and car.  Then he still has a garage and storage shed half full of crap he is storing for us until July when Roger and I come back for the Red run.  He is a saint and deserves a big reward.

Then it was time to say goodbye.

Goodbye Living Room.

Goodbye Kitchen.

Goodbye Family Room.

Goodbye Garage.

I built a bulkhead at the end of the load leaving space for the car.  Notice the mattress trying to escape over the top.  Alison's Relocation Service is handling the move and will build their own retaining wall before loading the car tomorrow.

The drive up to the Teagues was beautiful, as usual.

This was the only cloud in the sky at Cooper Landing.

The sky was really BLUE (without any filter on adjustment).

Turnagain Arm at Portage Glacier.

Now I write from the Teague estate where we have sought refuge from the storm.  The respite will be short as we leave for Portland on Friday and arrive in Redmond on Monday to plunge once again into the abyss known as home ownership.

See you down the road.

Progress

Yes, we are making some.  No photos yet but hope for some soon.  Most of garage and house are packed and in the Subaru's old stall.

The relocation company rep stopped by yesterday to estimate our total load and said we will have room to spare.  So we'll see when the 40' container arrives Wednesday and the nitty meets the gritty.

Baby bunnies in the back yard; cute but doesn't bode well for the new owner's plants.

Our 4G Verizon card only gets 3G and with an amber light (much worse that last summer when we had it here).  But on this Sunday morning at 6 AM it is nice and fast (still 3G but green light), so I'll try to load some photos on the next morning I'm up early.

Hang in there!

Entering the "Next to Last" Phase

So Teri went down to LA to visit with family and celebrate her Mom's 90th.  I stayed in Portland to watch over the grand kids and make sure the attendance didn't drop off for two Timber games.  Somehow, in spite of our singing all the right songs and toasting to all the good plays, the Timbers managed to lose both games.  Chivas USA even had the nerve to score their winning goal while we were all singing the traditional "You Are My Sunshine" during the 80th minute.  Some people have no respect.  There was a brief moment of stunned silence and then the song resumed.  It is a tradition that won't be stopped by opposing goals.

Here are a few shots of the LA celebration.

Betty and grand daughter Jordan.

Smiley.

Then there was one last visit to the Klein estate in Woodland, WA

The latest version of the The Wise Men.

A few of the trees we are considering for our new house.

And that brings me to the next phase.  Tomorrow we fly back to Soldotna where we get to pack the house into a 40' van (at least the front 20 feet of it).  Then, on the 25th they pick up the van, we close on the house and drive to Anchorage, load the car in the van and ship it all to Redmond.

After that we'll spend a short while catching our breath at the Eagle River B&B (otherwise know as the Alaska Teague's Estate), then work our way back to Redmond to reverse the process sometime in May.

I'll be leaving a few things behind as I already have tickets to return for the Red run this July.

Spring has sprung here but I hear that Soldotna is still in the middle of breakup and that is usually pretty ugly.

Hope it is nice where you are.  Updates as I am able.

Later.