Getting ready

There is so much to do before leaving your house for a full year. We had just downsized the year before to move into our remodeled basement, so getting the upstairs of our house ready hasn't been so bad. It had been rented until March of this year, so it was clean and empty when we moved back upstairs from the basement. Luckily we found some great renters for the basement apartment only 30 minutes after we posted the Craig's list ad.

But there have been lots of other things to take care of such as applying for social security and medicare, researching healthcare options in Albuquerque, getting our 2001 Prius in tip-top driving condition, buying the biggest Yakima box for the top (It's almost as big as the car!), and DEQing and renewing the car registration. If we hadn't of thought to do that before we left next week, we would have had to register it in New Mexico.

One big chore is to prepare our two cats for the trip. We bought a large pet carrier, one made for a big dog, and we are putting both our cats in it. To get them used to it, we've been putting treats in the carrier at odd times during the day, so now our older Siamese looks in the box occasionally to be sure she isn't missing a treat that might be hiding out. Some evenings we bring the box into the TV room and put both cats in it and leave them there while we watch a movie. They just lie down and patiently wait for their release. We also took them for a couple of car rides, but we have to do more of that. During the last ride Fiona pooped and peed in the carrier and it was a bit of a mess to clean out. We put a soft bathmat in the bottom which needed laundering. Next time we will wrap the bathmat in a plastic bag. We also have some absorbent hospital pads to put over the bathmat. We need to do more rides in the car this week replete with plenty of treats. Just in case, I've gotten tranquilizers from the vet.

This week we are also electing to auto-pay all our utility bills, canceling the newspaper, and finishing the yard maintenance. We weeded, pruned, chipped, mulched, and set up an automatic sprinkling system with hoses and timers to run for the summer.

But the biggest adjustment has been in our attitudes. Yesterday Lee came home from his last day at work and told me there's good news and bad news. The good news: I quit my job! The bad news: I quit my job! It's both freeing and frightening. We are going to have to live on about half what we did... that means no daily morning espressos, no more eating out whenever we don't feel like cooking, we are cutting out the monthly pledges to charity, and we may have to scale back on insurance, which has been a major monthly expense for us. I know there will be more cut backs and I feel pretty queasy about our ability to economize. We've been preparing for this cruise into retirement, but now that we've actually pushed off from the dock, we feel a bit adrift. At least Lee and I are in the same boat and are good at pulling together as a team. Good thing we enjoy each other's company because it's going to be a long trip!