Countdown!!

Finally.  D-Day is tomorrow, but today is for finalizing packing, cleaning, laundry, and running a few errands such as getting some $$ from the ATM.  Seems like it's been a really, really long wait for this day and I'm glad it's here.

Not that I'm all that anxious to leave Brookings or Oregon, just that I'm happy to not be in limbo any longer.  I can get out of waiting mode, take some action and hit the road toward whatever awaits in Georgia.  AccuWeather has been forecasting snow and/or ice for Sunday the 7th, the day I actually plan to arrive in the state.  The NOAA site, however, merely says mostly sunny with a high of 48.  I like that one much better.

I have to admit that I've had my moments of wondering "what the hell am I doing?" and realizing the finality of this moment.  Oh, I suppose I could change my mind, suffer a few consequences and stay where I am (well, stay on the west coast somewhere -- I definitely have to move out of this apartment!).  But other than the odd moment, I don't have any serious, or even half-serious, ideas of doing that.  I really do feel that some good things await me in Georgia, and am SO looking forward to having a home of my own where nobody can tell me what time I can do my laundry, or arbitrarily raise my rent, or limit how many nights in any given year the same guest can stay in my apartment. And I won't feel as if I'm an inmate in an institution with Nurse Cratchit overseeing the nuthouse. That's kind of what living here is like.

And a garden!  That's going to take a lot of energy and a bit of $$ to get started, but I can start small, work my way up.  I've missed this so much.  The last garden I had was at my house in Atlanta, 14 years ago.  That's a long dry spell although I've been blessed to live in the Willamette Valley for many of those years and thus have access to a broad array of fresh fruits and veggies at local farmer's markets.  Couldn't afford most of them, but they were there and I did what I could.

Picked up a couple more boxes yesterday -- I initially thought I had more than I'd need, but by now you'd think I'd know that you never have too many boxes when it comes to moving. I realized yesterday that I'd forgotten about a really big glass canister that holds my coffee beans and that none of the remaining boxes had space for it. I'm all set now, and have one more in reserve.

I'll be unplugging this computer late this afternoon, but you can expect an update tomorrow night from Santa Rosa, California.  I tried to find a good way to make a drive through the Napa Valley en route, but in the interest of speed, it just doesn't seem to make sense if I'm going to stick with Motel 6.  From this one, I'd have to backtrack north to Healdsburg to cut over and take the route I want.  And who knows, maybe I'll do it anyway.  It's only about 15 miles, and looking at the map, it looks like fewer miles to go this way even with the detour than to take the freeway south to Novato and cut over. Slower, but really, is 30 minutes going to make a difference at the end of the day? Both take me to the same place, Fairfield.  I really feel a need to say goodbye to Napa even though I was just there in August. It shouldn't be a big deal. We'll see.

I had a good omen late yesterday.  I am hooked on an on-line Maj-jongg game and despite myself I compete with myself for higher and higher scores.  Yesterday I hit 45,009 -- which is right up in the record 'high score' area for the game.  Or, it was when I first started playing.  Last I looked the high scores were up to around 50,000.  Still, until now my highest score had been 43,025 or thereabouts, so this was a BIG leap.  I hated to close the computer down and erase it!

Stay tuned --- talk at you tomorrow night!