farewell old friend

We sold our hot tub today. Very sad. We used it a lot, and I'm pretty sure it kept me from spinning sideways off the planet more than once. But leaving it with renters wasn't a good idea, with liability issues and all, so we found it a nice new home in Abiquiu, land of Georgia O'Keefe. You can visit it at Casita de Chuparosa. Looks like a nice place!

I think some people are confused as to why we're doing what we're doing. I keep hearing references to our upcoming "vacation". That's a good one! Sure, we expect to have a lot of fun and new adventures out there, but this certainly isn't a vacation, and there's not even a glimmer of light at the end of the Retirement Tunnel. I expect to be working till I drop, hopefully at a nice healthy old age. We're putting together the mobile bead studio now, and although I know I have to work, my hope is that maybe I won't have to work as much as I do now.

The biggest reason we're renting our house and hitting the road in a travel trailer (If you're new here, there's the basic plot line. Read older posts for all the dirt.), is because it's just so exhausting and overwhelming and confining being tied to a house. This lovely place we've called home for eight years has become such a heavy weight. We spend all day, almost every day, working to keep a house so we have a place to work... We think there might be more to life. For the last two or three years we've toyed with the idea of downsizing, simplifying, and living a smaller life that feels bigger. It's finally happening, and we're generally giddy with excitement, but the process requires a lot of letting go, not only of stuff (and we have plenty of that to deal with), but also of expectations, fears, and self-limitations. Simplicity isn't necessarily easy.

So we'll be out there, working our way to nowhere in particular, seeing where the road takes us, with a loose plan to find a bit of land someplace in southern Oregon, so we'll have a place to stop and rest when we feel like it. As a Cancerian creature, born in July, I need to have something that feels like home. On the other hand, we're both pretty nomadic at heart, and so the trick is to blend the two. The trailer is becoming more of a "nomad's nest" than a camper. That's what I need, because I really love not camping!

(Anne Taintor)

So anyway, the hot tub is gone, the yard sale is this weekend, and we're up to our eyeballs in Stuff To Do. It's all OK. Good even. It's exactly what we asked for. We will miss the hot tub though, especially these last few weeks, when we're doing so much hard physical work. The substitute will be something like this...



Yes, I do think a dish pan full of hot water and a dash of Tired Old Ass Soak will do the trick, even if it's only my feet that get to do the soaking.