The process, the gestalt, feelings and reflections, existential angst.
On Aug 14 2014, we embarked on a life of travel. So, here are some thoughts and images of the last five years. Lots has changed over those years, but we have changed the most ... and for the better.
How do we decide on an apartment in another country ? What do we look for? It’s not easy when you need to balance comfort, location and budget. It can be pretty easy to find a place that meets two of these but adding the third can really reduce the options. So, here are a few observations on what we look for.
“A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation: As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think.” ~ Joseph Campbell, ... We have jumped.
As the countdown continues we have begun to wax a bit nostalgic. Even though, as I said before, we don’t tend to look back too much, it has been difficult to not to take notice of the lasts and firsts. For example, last night we had a wonderful dinner with some dear friends, fellow travelers all. While the notion of a last dinner together never occurred to us, we did take notice that it was the last Saturday night we would spend in this country for quite some time to come.
Well, it is now T-10 days. We fly out August 15th. Are we ready? Yes and no. We finally worked out a plan for the cars. Jeannie's is sold and…
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright employed a principle he called “compress and release”. Creating a small space through which one must pass before reaching a larger space, Wright created a sense of tension, followed by a feeling of freedom One author described it as “Sometimes, when we are comfortable in our surroundings, we are not particularly aware of them—it is only when we are made to feel slightly uncomfortable that our senses are peaked enough to truly notice the environment that we are standing in, motivating us to move.” So, we began moving in a rather big way.
The wood floors whisper underfoot as I wander the house, alone, for the last time. The furniture has been sold or taken to storage, there is no art on the walls, no sound but the air conditioner. From room to room memories waft about, reminding me of so many good times. We haven’t shed tears over this departure; we try not to look behind us, rather ahead. Just as the house before the fire was forgotten long ago, we let the importance of the experience have its profound and lasting positive effect on us – and we move forward.
... to write. The house is, once again, empty. Surreal, but ... ONWARD! ... yet still ... .
A great friend has made me peanut butter pies for my birthday or many years. Now, these are not ordinary peanut butter pies, they are not healthy, but they are exceptionally de-e-e-e-licious. They freeze well and it does not diminish the deliciousness. We woke up for the last time in our house, early as usual, made some instant coffee and pulled our last two slices of peanut butter pie from the freezer, and had breakfast in bed. What a treat, and as the sugar and caffeine kicked in, the packing resumed with a vengeance. The movers will arrive soon.
We were in Miami the other night. The next day we applied for our French long-stay visa. For some reason we kind of had pre-test jitters, even though it is merely a bureaucratic formality. The paperwork had been checked multiple times, multiple copies had been made, and we even had copies of documents we probably didn’t need, but … just in case.
As part of our quest to simplify and downsize, we are trying to become paperless. Though we’ve heard that’s a goal of many businesses, it’s rarely achieved. Our incoming paper stream has been greatly reduced as we’ve opted for electronic statements. So, much of our accumulated paper is from prior years. I don’t know why I’ve felt the need to hang on to the last paper statement, even when it is from years ago. I guess they give me some form of security, in case the internet disappears one day.
I feel a special responsibility for things that come into my possession that have had great meaning to someone. They are a special connection to the past, just as the Rosetta stone, or the megaliths of Stonehenge, or my father’s High School yearbook. So too, was Grandma Alexander’s accordion. While she was not a blood relative of Jeannie’s family, she was Granddad’s second wife, and she was loved by us all without reservation. We, by chance, came to possess her accordion.
Dear reader, this blog isn’t just for you. This blog is MY journal of the experience of this craziness we have embarked upon. If it were Jeannie’s journal it would be a spreadsheet complete with pivot tables. And she does really GREAT pivot tables, but hardly as riveting as my inspired prose. You will be subjected to a bunch of preliminary preparation stuff and philosophical introspection. And that is one of the reasons for keeping this journal. We will be able to come back here and remember the anguish of those stupid decisions.
Do you remember Tetris the computer game from the mid-80s? The objective of the game was to maneuver four-square shapes, as they cascaded down the playing field, by moving each one sideways and rotating it, with the aim of creating a horizontal line of ten blocks without gaps. Our Slow Nomads adventure (and life in general) is much like that game. Unknown things and occurrences appear without our control and we nudge and rotate them so that they all fit together nicely into an entire row and then they disappears. Of course, it doesn’t always work that way.
I have always said that there are three kinds of things: - Things you have to do, - Things you need to do, - Things you want to do. I generally do the things that I have to do, then I do the things I want to do. I ignore the things that I need to do because they will eventually become things that I have to do and will get done, or rarely, they become things I want to do and they get done. And sometimes they just go away.
The garage sales are over, and trips to take items to Goodwill and the county recycling center have finally slowed to a trickle. The house goes on the market in a few days, and we have arranged the first three months apartments in France. It looks as if this is really happening. But then, at the peak of the chaos, Jeannie’s father Gene, at 85 had a bout with appendicitis. That had us deeply concerned and running back and forth to Tampa to coordinate his care with siblings.
Getting rid of certain things marks the end of one era and the start of another. Yet somewhere inside a small voice reminds me of my mortality. It reminds me that now is the time. Where is that garbage can? It is important to choose wisely. Take tools for example. Once we return and are setting up a small apartment, will I ever need my hoe or circular saw again? When we are renting will I need to have my tap and die set, or the 10-foot-long dryer vent cleaner brush?
Well, the house hasn’t sold yet, in fact it isn’t even on the market; but we thought we’d better not wait to book an apartment in France – as desirable places get leased early. Once we decided to make our first move in August, we realized that the south of France is a very popular destination in the summer. We are not fans of crowds so we looked at the map and decided on the town of Rennes, in the Brittany (northwest) region of France, to be our starting point.
One doesn’t come to embrace an adventure such as this without weighing the downsides. We spent a weekend in our college town reconnecting with friends, some we hadn’t seen in many years. It was so good to share time together again, and it isn’t easy to think about leaving such people and places behind, but we are not leaving, we are going someplace different. To me there is a rather significant difference between the two. Besides, we will be bringing them all with us, at least in our memories and hearts.
When we first discussed the plan to downsize and travel, we established a loose target date to have the house ready to put on the market. Since the house might sell quickly, we also realized that we needed to be ready regarding the move details, that is we need to decide where to live, research apartment options, visa application, travel insurance and insurance options, banking arrangements, as well as create a reasonable budget including income streams, etc., etc., etc.
Chris and I work fairly well together, as long as we aren’t sharing the same task. So while he is purging the garage and attic, I am working on the to-do list and budget. He is the artistic one, writing entries for the blog, and taking photographs, I am the project manager and Excel spreadsheet master. Now if I can only get him to work on the items in the listed order!
A venture such as this has many facets. The biggest considerations are related to preparing and selling our home and possessions. This is no easy task for several reasons. First it is a beautiful home in a great neighborhood, and it means even more to us because we rebuilt after a fire in 2003. Second, is what to do with everything we have replaced and accumulated over the past ten years. Our realtor assured us the house would move quickly considering the improvements made during the rebuild. But there is a lot of work yet to be done.
Jeannie and I have always enjoyed traveling. We are now both retired, our health is still good and we are financially secure. Retirement has made the prospect of longer adventures even more inviting. The only thing that might hold us back is the responsibility, maintenance, and expense of our home and all our stuff. Easy, we could downsize our possessions into storage, sell the house and cars, we could take a small apartment almost anywhere. The big question would be “Where?” when we considered the bigger picture, we realized that we could go almost anywhere in the world!
