This is not another permanent break.
I will continue the writing habit I regained on the trip.
The excuses, then.
It has been so busy.
The trip ended. We went back to California, but we knew we weren’t staying. We’d decided, with about two months left in the trip, that we were leaving California and moving to Florida. Doing it. Fully embracing it. Taking a lot less demanding job for a lot less money to be able to spend a lot more time together as a family. A wild midlife vie to maintain some of the magic we were able to create the past year together on the road.
We listed a house, refinanced another, and arranged a cross-country move with naught but cell phones, rest areas, and interstate ramps. We moved Mom, then moved her again. Felt guilty and sad about leaving her, leaving family, leaving friends. We packed a house and slept on the floor and then lived in the front yard of friends. We said tearful goodbyes for too long.
I said the trip ended but it didn’t – that’s wrong. It kept going. It keeps going. We got to Florida. Living in the front yard again. Working to do life as typically as possible but doing so from the RV. Still homeschooling the kids until we get an address and can enroll them in school. Cars still registered out of state, no drivers licenses, no library cards, no Disney season passes – can’t do any of it without an address. Here permanently, but with no sense of permanence.
We bought a house, though. Just yesterday. Just bought it. We talked a lot about downsizing in this move. Downsizing our budget, our consumption, our things, our home. The place we bought is both two-thirds this size of our previous place and five time bigger than our home for the past year. We will sell a lot. Furniture that filled rooms we no longer have and didn’t use much when we did. Wall hangings for wall space we no longer have.
I am excited. I am ready. It keeps going.
Also written on this day...
- partial recall - 2023
- alternating apexes - 2010
- a floor is meant to be walked on - 2009
- x-rated - 2005
- does this count? - 2004