Home again...

I got home from Germany at the end of May and immediately started working on my house leaning towards the likelihood of renting it out rather than selling it. Either way I had a lot of work to do starting with painting the remainder of what I didn’t do the summer before.  So between the scraping, washing, priming and painting, I started going through rooms and the barn and throwing out all the junk that accumulated over 18 years in the same house.  You know… the stuff that you keep, thinking “someday I will find a use for this.”  Between the garbage dumpster and the recycling can and bulk pickups, I had full loads every week for the folks from Sanitation Services.  I gave away a lot of stuff and took several truckloads to the Mission. As I cleaned sorted and packed I moved gradually from one room to the next emptying it and taking stuff to storage.  All that to say, my house is clean as a whistle with freshly painted ceilings and a few touch up jobs.   A lot of memories go with that house, but after all the things that made it a home were out, it was much easier to let go. Big Sigh! Hurricanes, kids, me…a lot of history.  Now on to new exciting adventures.  I leave in a couple of weeks for Okinawa for a 6 month gig, but at least this time I won’t have to fret about my house being empty and no more relying on others to handle things like mail. Jared and Tifany have done a great job for me and even mowed my grass and bought staple groceries pending my return each time, but all in all, this is a big relief.   Replacing my water heater and re-doing to electrical boxes in the house was kind of an unplanned expense, but needed to be done.  Almost a shame to get my house so clean and updated, only to hand the keys over for somebody else to enjoy. Another sigh!  So I guess my next blog entry will be from Okinawa telling all about life on a tropical island.