Life Changes

The experts say life changes are stressful. I think they must be right. You may know that we are preparing to sell our home, yes, the ol' suburban family homestead, and live and travel in a motorhome for the next few years.

Oh, I hear you out there, all of you who are saying, Wow, these people are NUTS! No, we're not. We are just choosing to start our retirement in a manner unusual. But we are unusual people, in spite of what our children say.

Yes, retirement is only about 13 and one half months away, but who's counting? We have so much to do and to decide in the next year that it boggles the mind. All the problems are solvable, except for one...retirement money. That's the tricky part, making sure you've got enough money to actually be able to fuel, lube, and maintain Winnie Moho and still feed people and dog. She's a thirsty girl, our Winnie Moho!

Just how does one manage to get down the road with a moho, motorcycles, a car for inclement weather, all one's belongings, and a dog? We'll find out. We are wrestling with the alternate transportation issue currently. Neither of us is ready to dump the motorcycles, and yet neither of us particularly wants to do certain things or go certain places on a motorcycle, or ride in pouring rain,  or tow a 22 foot trailer behind our 34 foot motorhome. We are still searching out solutions and compromises for this thorny issue.

Already we've figured out that "all one's belongings" is a quickly shrinking list. Motorhomes have weight limits! You can't just chuck the entire contents of any part of your home in there and all is well. Nope. Does not work that way.

What about doctors and medications and veterinarians? What if you suffer a breakdown (a motorhome breakdown, people) in the middle of the middle of No Place? How do you get your snail mail? How do you get internet in the middle of the middle of No Place, or even just up the road from here? A person needs the internet these days, if only to download a new book to the Kindle or find out where to buy the special dog food that the special dog devours or where's the laundromat.

I'll bet there's stuff we have not even thought about yet that we need to think about and figure out before we hit the road. You can't squeeze a laundry room into a 34 foot motorhome. You can't squeeze in a big freezer or a pantry or a dishwasher. And yet, we wish to be prepared to manage on our own for a few weeks in case we get caught in a local disaster. Just how does one find space for emergency supplies? What supplies will be most essential?

We've got the laundry partly figured out....we're hoarding quarters for the machines! And those Tide Pods are made for nomads. I'm waiting for someone to make Fabric Softener Pods and I hope they get the job done soon.

And we've got the dishwasher part figured out...I wash, Ray dries, we both put away. And Norman does the prewash. Good dog.

We are so happy we bought the motorhome last year. It has given us time to figure out some things and learn some things and get all the little bugs worked out/fixed before we go off adventuring. I'm learning how to get the motorhome hooked up to utilities and how to unhook. I'm learning how to cook and clean up when there is only the 40 gallons of water we have onboard to last 3 days. I'm learning how to shower in 6 gallons of water. (not easy with long hair) We found out that neither one of us can comfortably vacuum the place with a hand vac, even the nice one Justin got us. But we can't haul along the old, heavy Electrolux either, so there's another thing we have to figure out. Ray is doing his own share of learning too. He's learning how to properly maintain our rig, how to troubleshoot the electronics, how to stay in our own lane on the highway, and how not to be such a clutterer, among other things. Hey, we all have issues, right?

So we hope you will join us, or stick with us, as we get ready to take off into the wild blue. Think of all the fabulous places we will go and all the wondrous things we will see! We'd be happy to share the trip!

What Next?

Bombs at the Boston Marathon (and elsewhere)! Horrific injuries and death at one of America's most loved events. I know hundreds of Washington residents are there, and I would suppose hundreds of people are there from your area, where ever you live.

I cannot imagine why anyone would (or could) hate my fellow citizens so much that they would be part of this cowardly attack. These are not brave people. They are afraid to face the people they wish to kill so they make sneak attacks. They don't care if they hurt children or elderly or people recovering from cancer. These people don't even have hearts. I don't care what breed of terrorist they are--they are cowardly and evil. God or Allah, neither will welcome them gladly into Paradise. No higher purpose could possibly be served by this sort of bombing. Who ever you are, you should be dying of shame right this instant.

Even if you feel you have a legitimate gripe against the ordinary, innocent citizens of America, this is no way to express your grievances.

I sincerely hope the authorities hunt you down, you slime, and wipe you off the face of the earth, you and all those who abetted and encouraged and funded you in this cowardly attack. In the meantime, I figuratively scrape you off the bottom of my shoes.