My house smells like cardboard, I think my cat is building forts with my moving boxes while I sleep (when I sleep), and I only had one panic attack this week so far, which is the excuse I’m using for being late with this blog post.
Selling one house and simultaneously buying another—in a different state and time zone—is not for the faint of heart. I could probably use some extra oxygen, and keep reminding myself to deep-breathe, given things are going along remarkably well, all things considered.
I’ve just tackled the dreaded list of phone calls to terminate utility services in my Vegas home next month, and will soon begin arranging for the same in New Mexico, though I’ve already signed up for internet service.
Can I just say that an internet and TV package are going to cost me way less in my new locale? Which is good because I will be needing pool service.
Having a pool in my backyard will be a first for me, along with pistachio trees. I also can’t wait to actually see the Milky Way at night again, and to say a not-so-fond goodbye to HOAs, especially mine.
It has now been almost thirteen months since my over-55 gated community pool closed for supposedly a six-month renovation. This while I have shelled out thousands, in the three years I’ve been here, for an assessment to pay for said pool renovations, which I will likely never enjoy the benefits of.
I was hoping for maybe two weeks to be able to hang out in the pool for a few hours each afternoon in the nearly three weeks I will have left here in the month of May, to relieve the physical stress of packing boxes and mental stress of everything else associated with relocating.
Alas, that pipedream remains just that, as there is no current actual opening date for the pool. Heavy sigh. All the more reason I am happily moving, though I will miss my pomegranate and lemon trees and will never get to taste a lime from the tree I had planted two-plus years ago that might actually produce fruit this year.
My orange tabby loveable-menace of a feline, Morris—featured in the photo accompanying this post—will have a new, larger indoor space in which to roam and explore—and climb into boxes as I unpack. And sweet Bodie dog will have nearly a half-acre to roam, as well as the pool to plunge into on hot sunny days in the Land of Enchantment.
Moving them will be the most stressful of all, as always. Making me wish I really was Rowan Layne in my Other Worldly novels. She who can flit around it spaceships with her alien pals who help her and her critters move without the need for cardboard boxes, moving trucks, and long road trips in conventional vehicles.
Suffice to say I haven’t gotten any writing done lately on the eighth and final OW novel, Alien Origins, but my guess is New Mexico might just end up featuring in Rowan’s future plans. I already had her relocating to a house with a pool several books ago, albeit in a Las Vegas neighborhood where I’ve never actually resided, so I think that’s quite prescient of me.
For now, I’ll keep on packing those boxes and save the writing for a calmer, more serene time and place in the not-too-distant future. Thank goodness.
Onward!!!