Further moving adventures

Our house is under contract. I told you that already. There was a house inspection on Friday, and we heard yesterday that the buyers are worried about a crack in the foundation, and a missing green sticker on the furnace. The crack has been there since we have, unchanging, so hopefully they'll be ok with it. The green sticker, we were told by our furnace guy, was not strictly necessary, but we would be happy to have the furnace serviced to obtain the sticker. And that was all. They told us the house seemed clean and well maintained and they appreciate that. And with those words, many of the bad feelings I have been harboring toward our buyers have gone away. They realize we are clean! They appreciate our hard work! And they appreciate our house! Ok fine. I'm happy to give them that extra money in closing costs.

***

I have been weeding the yard. We have an amazing yard, in which things just grow on their own. We don't need to plant anymore. No planting flowers or ground cover or anything. It grows on its own now. But some things grow too well, and we do need to pull them out. The bindweed and the Virginia creeper and the cat mint. And the raspberries in the lawn. And the grass in the strawberry patch. That miserable insidious grass. I hate it!


Will I miss our amazing, unique, fruitful yard?

The vegetable garden,

 the strawberry patch,

the garden path,

and the raspberries?

Will I miss it? Probably I will miss it at times. But honestly, not much.

I've been cleaning out my office. I've found a lot of articles I saved over the years that gave good advice on being a faculty member. These articles were so awesome that I filed them in a folder to peruse regularly, so they could shine upon me with their inspiration. And I have never read them since filing them away. Until cleaning time.

While cleaning, I have been reminded that if I want to be great, I need to work harder. I need to spend an extra hour a day working on that hard problem.

And then, I find myself out in the garden in the morning, mindlessly pulling bindweed from around the raspberry thorns for an extra hour a day. Nowhere in those articles does it say that success comes from yard work. Nowhere.

Will I miss the yard? Probably. Will I miss the yard work? Sometimes. Will I miss it enough to find a new garden any time soon? No way. And when I am missing the garden, perhaps I will be reminded that now I have more time to work on that hard problem, instead of weeding. Perhaps.

***

Jonathan earned a boy scout award. Arrow of light.

There are no Boy Scouts of America in Australia, of course. There is scouting, mixed gender. It could be awesome. But I don't know if he'll keep up the scouting. He has to keep up the flute because we bought the flute. And he has to keep up skating now that we have invested in ice skates. But I don't care about the scouting.

***

For moving, there is so much work to do still. We have started going through the house room by room, Tim and I. We have been through all the clothes in the closets, and we have a huge box of clothing to donate. We've started filling out paperwork, assigning a value to the items we intend to move and wish to insure. And noting those that are made of wood, or have been outside, or have been made of something animal (down comforter, leather sofa), which must be declared for customs. So much stuff!

Tim is selling collections. Star Wars. Transformers. Nintendo. The drum set sold quickly. My oil paint set was listed longer, but it looks like it will finally sell tomorrow. The furniture is trickier. A friend may want the couch set downstairs. Another friend may want the TV. My sister wants the porch swing. A brother wants the extra dresser. We can donate lamps and appliances. Yard sale? Is it worth the hassle?

***

We will miss the people here. We've started saying goodbye, mostly over food. There are so many lovely people we've said goodbye to. Lena, Nate, Suzanne, Deneen, Eric, Norma, Michelle. And so much food. We've been eating way too much. When we finally move, I will never need to eat again. Isn't that great? Food will be one less thing to worry about in this wonderful crazy amazing future I am building in which I spend the days working on hard problems with no yard work and no more food! Lovely!

I should stop. That hard problem is calling to me, beckoning me to think! I think I'll go to bed.