Taking Bumps in Stride

Everything has been going smoothly toward the closing of our house. Inspections are done, appraisal and searches are finished. We're on the home stretch. Nine more days until we close, load, and head on down the road. We were feeling so confident about the way things have been going that we took off last Friday morning for a weekend in Kansas City with our daughter Jill, and family. We celebrated her 36th birthday, spent time with the grandies and generally had a relaxing visit.

Aesa 

Tay

Celina has recently taken up archery, and she's a natural!

If it was Thanksgiving, and she had a stomach for it, we would have had a fine bird.

Celina

Dan and Hogan

Related to the move, we were thinking ourselves on easy street. Then Jill reminded us of her experience moving from Sydney, Australia to the US. How they sold their furniture, sold most of their belongings, sold their car, and still, as little as they had to pack, found themselves scrambling during the last week to pull it all together. My! Didn't we sit up and take notice!

We have begun packing the kitchen into boxes. Our closet is pretty much empty.

Monday afternoon we hit our first bump in the road, so to speak. I took 8-1/2 year-old Hogan to Ames, Iowa, to the small animal hospital in the School of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University. Hogan is blind in his left eye (perhaps shot with a bb gun before he was rescued), so fairly regularly his ocular pressures need to be checked. We learned that a recent change in the appearance of his blind eye is from glaucoma, and that pressure was 73. Normal is between 12 and 15. It's very likely that he's been in pain, and at the very least has had headaches. Poor guy.

We've bought all the drugs to reduce the pressure - eye drops and pain meds - and will be administering those, but the doctor's recommendation is to have Hogan's eye removed. With the timing and logistics of our move, surgery isn't an immediate option. But living in The Villages, we'll be near the University of Florida in Gainesville, where we'll be looking up an opthalmology veterinarian.

Lasts

The sad part of leaving one's home of 22-1/2 years is what's been happening the past two weeks. Days have been marked by "lasts."

On Wednesday I'll be parting with my 2000 Volkswagen Beetle. It's been a great little car, and it holds many wonderful memories. How do I remember? In the glove box, I kept this guest book that every new passenger signed, dated, and sometimes commented in.

Since April 21, 2000, I've had 85 passengers! When I was co-chair of programs for the Des Moines Area Quilters Guild, I shuttled our speakers to and from the airport, motel and restaurants. I have siggies from celebrity quilters:

Harriet Hargrave - Ruth B. McDowell - Irma Gail Hatcher - Terry Ann Waldron

Also Helen Kelley (columnist for Quilters Newsletter Magazine) who has since passed away.

My most cherished signature is that of my Mother who was my second passenger. She passed away in 2002.

Today was the last time I hand-washed my Bug. It's never been through a car wash. Pride of ownership? You bet! It has also been vacuumed for the last time, and the license plates - 4GRDU8N (for graduatin') - have been taken off. It's ready to be picked up Wednesday morning by its new owner. Bye bye little silver Bug.

I've also attended:

* my last Hope Quilters meeting. Cake was served, and quilters were asked to share a memory.

* my last church rehearsal with Adoration Choir, and a farewell social time afterward.

Two of my eight alto friends: Carla and Karel

* and my last Modern Quilt Guild meeting with the Des Moines Chapter. I was the program speaker, sharing my experiences and knowledge about free motion quilting.

While I was changing a sewing machine foot and re-threading the machine, they ate cake! 

Check out the palm trees and flip-flops. Too perfect.

Yet to come is the last evening I spend with my closest friends, the Batting Buds. A box of tissues please.

Then, on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m., those same friends are hosting a Stitchin' Mission farewell open house at our church. Since Stitchin' Mission is going with me to Florida - SM is really God's that I'm tending - my extremely thoughtful friends have planned this occasion to gather some of the quilters I've met during the past seven years of this program. More than 120 email invitations were sent. It will surely be wonderful.

Considerate friends are making it difficult to leave.

And here, I thought I would just quietly walk away.

Linda







P.S. If you're noticing that word verification is turned on again, it's 'cause I started to get spam comments. Sorry friends.