Preparing for take off

We are now a week and a half away from our scheduled departure date and life is in chaos though we are trying to remain calm and centered in the process. Our house looks like vandals had a party here and my office is still looking more lived in than not. ( Not the right look for someone who is cleaning it out) Every piece of paper has to be looked at and evaluated for future value for myself or someone else. There are bags/piles in the bedroom for collecting things after final judgement has been made as to whether the item can be recycled ( to whom? how?), discarded, stored for our return in 2 years, mailed to NZ, hand carried by us via Mexico then to NZ, stored in a special box of summer only items we will retrieve once a year for fishing and camping in AK, or will be used the day of travel going from the Arctic to the tropics. All in all many decisions large and small must be made.

Some items on our check off list create other activities: Tom called our homeowners insurance company to give them our new Homer PO Box address which they accepted and then told us they are canceling our policy because we will not be living in our home. That then adds the research involved in finding and applying for a different policy to cover the house until it sells. Tom is spending a lot of time on the phone and at the computer cleaning up our files to store what's needed on an external hard drive and decommission the computer as well as dealing with our business issues related to banking, investments, insurance, selling cars, property, the house, etc. etc etc. It seems endless. We have updated wills, powers of attorney, living wills, and a safety deposit box for all these things.

This week is especially bittersweet as it is filled with well wishes and goodbyes through lunches and gatherings with my coworkers, the residential treatment staff, my clients, our friends, and my co-managers. People ask if I am excited, but I can't be yet or I'll lose focus on what I have to do between now and when we leave. Sometimes I can't hold back the tears. The people connections we have made are so precious it's hard to believe we are choosing to do this at times. But I know the phones work well in New Zealand, and Skype is free, we will visit once a year, and so I'm encouraging visitors and trust that the adventure will still be worth all this work getting off the ground. I know having done this in '88 when we lived in Thailand for a year, that the hardest part is getting ready to leave and the rest is relatively easy. I'm considering this to be like major pruning of a plant: the roots remain deep and alive, while the outer branches may be trimmed way back to promote new growth. I'm looking f0rward to that.

We will Leave Homer on the 28th and spend a week in La Manzanilla, Mexico where we had vacationed a year ago with Martty and Susie, immediately following Susan's death. It was a wonderful place to relax, grieve, and heal. We are both so exhausted from the packing and emotional letting go that the idea of just sleeping, and reading and walking on a beautiful beach for a week sounds really good. We will then fly to Christchurch where we start working on the new list: setting up a bank account, buying a car, insuring it, learning to drive on the other side of the car and the road, buying household items we have to replace and then finding our way to Takaka and our new little beach house 100 meters off the beach on Paton's Rock. ( If you google earth that area you'll see what we will be seeing on a daily basis). I will start my first day of work there on February 11, 2008, exactly one year and a day after Susan's death. It seems auspicious to be marking a new beginning in the chapters of our life. People ask what Tom plans to do there and the answer is he doesn't know. He has visions though of playing guitar, meeting the local folks over coffee and entering into the local political chat, and riding a motorcycle. He'll wait and see what work opportunities emerge for him but is not worried. Life is good. I'm hoping once we are settled he will also start writing. We should be posting script and photos to the blog more regularly after we settle in there. Till then keep us bookmarked.
Chris