Going Mobile!

I’m off the farm! After a tough week of painting, sorting, packing and seeing to a myriad of last minute details and thanks to the help of my mother, I said goodbye to southwestern Virginia on Tuesday afternoon. My exceptional neighbors came over to help me load up my little 5’ x 8’ UHaul trailer and, after a full day, my mother and I headed down the highway to Charlotte, North Carolina, where we spent the night before her flight out Wednesday morning. I’m sure she was exhausted and ready to be home!

I drove on to Georgia Wednesday morning, stopping at my newly rented storage unit to unload. Putting all my remaining possessions in storage made me feel more homeless than I have since I sold my house in Texas. I’ll be staying with my younger sister for a week or so here. Saturday I’m taking one of my nephews and making a dash over to Oxford, Mississippi to see my son in his final college play. He’s got the lead in The Adding Machine, which is a very different sort of story, and we’re anxious to see it. Graduation is in May, at which time he’ll be ending (knock wood) his career as a college student and hopefully joining the ranks of the employed. I’m looking forward to spending the weekend with him and meeting his new girlfriend.

My sister is heading to Nicaragua with her church group on Easter Sunday and I’m going down to Florida for a week with my parents. The weather should be beautiful and I’m looking forward to a nice visit. After that I’ll have a week with my younger brother’s family north of Atlanta before heading to my next housesitting assignment in Tennessee.

I have to admit on my last morning on the farm, when I went up to let the birds out of their coops, I was a little sad. I really enjoyed my time there and made some good friends, who were sorry to see me go. I love having chickens and that’s certainly over for the foreseeable future. I hate that I didn’t get to accomplish all I’d hoped at the farm. I don’t like leaving jobs unfinished and, even though I have the good excuse of departing five months earlier than expected, I found it unsettling to walk away.

Tennessee will be a complete change of pace. Although the town to which I’m moving is a small one, I’ll be right in it. After eight months of semi-isolation, that’ll take some adjusting! I’m looking forward to having some different sorts of opportunities and adventures. I’ll be just outside Knoxville, which I understand is a fairly small city but larger than any city I’ve lived near in more than thirty years so I’m expecting some fun opportunities to come my way. I suspect east Tennessee will be a beautiful place to spend the spring and summer!