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The Ongoing Scavenger Hunt

The move finally happened. Well, mostly.

My wife and I decided months ago it will make sense to live in the Sidney area. An effective news editor needs to be part of the community, and a 40-mile drive in this area doesn’t define that. Additionally, favorite vehicles are not known for superior gas mileage and a 40-mile drive after 12 hours or more doesn’t do much for alertness.

So it finally happened. We are, at least functionally, in one house. Friends and family often implied the question of “why are you leaving Sterling?” No, we didn’t get run out. We didn’t torch the town in a manner of speaking. We could have adjusted to stay there, our home community for several years, until we are no longer part of this earth. However, it became clear we were ready for a new adventure. The reality is sometimes the best adventure is the unexpected opportunity.

Part of that adventure is the move. Yes, I said the other four-letter word sometimes not so different from the commonly-thought-of four-letter word. We were encouraged early on to purge, get rid of everything we don’t constantly use or need. It kind of worked; kind of. We weren’t sure if we were cleaning house, herding cats or juggling cats while standing over water.

We had use of a temporary storage area in our new home town, which helped a lot, but it also caused a dilemma of sorts. How much can a person move without hamstringing the current home environment, and how much can be moved without feeling like you’re moving twice? These are questions we never fully answered during our transition period. We relied on our realtor extensively, who also became a valued friend accepted by our miniature watch dog. She would often say “it would help if you could do this, or that” or “the potential buyers had a hard time visualizing it as their home” meaning we needed to do more purging and moving.

When the official day came, we had a small compliment of hard working volunteers who made the process a success, friends and family who recognize such a daunting task can tear the soul from many a hearty beast. We are eternally thankful for each person who committed the day or afternoon and some sore muscles to help us get it done.

This adventure required changing addresses, zip codes and everything that goes with it. Everything also means that transition period where you’re living in a children’s game and an old country song at the same time. Hide and Seek: Where did the box of kitchen supplies go? Ring Around the Rosie: Making laps around the house searching for said box of household implements. The country song: Whose shoes are those under my bed? Oh, that’s right. They’re the pair I haven’t worn for too long.

The lesson is two parts. I was to the point I just wanted the process done. In a dream world I would have backed up a truck-trailer and an “Acme turbo-vac” to move everything from the old house to the new. W could stand back and watch it unfold like a board game. No such luck. My wife was trying to label and organize as much as possible, and what she did worked. But when everything, including the business end, is done in hours, done is done and let the games begin after that. The games are sobering and contain a lot of education moments. The education of how to plan for an adventure you don’t see coming, or how to manage good-hearted volunteers when your desire is for the magic wand.

I don’t need an overwhelming amount of stuff. I try to stay close to the “enough” philosophy; enough blessings to enjoy life, enough love to live positive, enough challenges to not be complacent and enough hardships to appreciate the blessings more. But when pockets of life have been left to their own for a period of time, they almost fester, multiply like rabbits on steroids. The purging and the moving has a strange kind of blessing. We have surprised ourselves at how much of what we moved before making the move that we really didn’t miss.

Moving requires re-evaluating your lifestyle. Take a look at what you need and what you don’t, maybe even what you’ve forgotten about. However, start the process before the sale contract is signed and the pickups and trailers line up, or hopefully the moving truck. Life is unpredictable. If the things you enjoy don’t fit in the truck, you’re suddenly facing a hard decision.

Fortunately, so far my hardest quest is finding my other set of keys and my reading glasses.

 

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