Over the last several years Alice and I have been “wintering”
with our motor-home at a campground in Titusville Florida. Like many snow-birds, we started off with a one
month stay, than escalated to two months, then three months. The family “discussions” or arguments were always about the time
frame: Why are we staying in the
Northeast during the worst of the winter, and leaving for Florida when the
weather is dicey and questionable….when the camper has been, by necessity,
winterized and “put to sleep”, only to be brought out of hibernation once the
Mason-Dixie line was crossed?
Long story short we decided this past winter to make a major
change in our life: We purchased a
town-house in Titusville, got it all set up, had the furniture and stuff we
cared about shipped there, and have put our Preston property on the
market. Our daughter transferred to that
area and is now ensconced at our town-house and is awaiting our arrival
mid-summer 2012. It’s a wonderful
town-house in a good area, with decks off the upper bedrooms, a great “Florida”
room on the first level, and it’s located in an area we know as well as we know
Preston due to our winter hibernations.
The problems in doing this are many, the most difficult
being the “letting go” of a lot of the “stuff” we’ve been hauling around for
our 44 married years. The way we did is
was this: We contracted for two large “Pods”
and we loaded them with all the things we thought we would need at our new
digs. This was shipped to Titusville,
and myself and Joanna drove down and, with the help of good friends in Seaport
Sams Camping Club unloaded them and got the town-house ready for occupancy. I than flew back to CT and we did a lot of
work getting this property ready for sale (Alice is a true Polish
wonder-worker!)….and we made the decisions as to what to sell, to give away, to
donate and to trash. The theory is that
whatever did NOT make the first cut, and could not fit in the motor-home Prius
combination on our last trip South, had to go.
So, with Goodwill, Craigslist, some friends and relatives, we have
unburdened ourselves of a whole lot of STUFF that at some point in our life was
important, but – as we move forward, has been relegated to “stuff” that has to
be disposed of. It’s Not easy.
Of course now that the Preston house has been totally “de-cluttered”,
cleaned and polished (we had a great company come in that professionally
power-washed the house, shed, greenhouse and the roof’s…living in the wood’s it
needed serious attention but vinyl cleans up great!) it’s a little hard leaving
it behind it’s so nice. But that’s OK…our
new digs are different, offer much less maintenance and are in an area that we
really enjoy being in and that I think will add ten years to my life.
We’re not the first ones to do this and we won’t be the last
I’m sure, and it’s kind of liberating making things simpler. The Titusville town-house has two parking
spots…and our daughter is using one, so that leaves us one….so we’ve sold my
faithful Miata and the old Jeep will go next…after we’re through with the
Goodwill and land-fill excursions. That
will leave us with the Prius and the motor-home, and eventually we’ll sell the
Prius and get a newer vehicle that is four-wheel down towable behind the
motor-home. My brother and sister in-law
did that in Atlanta (went down to one vehicle) and it’s worked out well for
them. We’re freeing up time and finances
to be able to travel more and do more of the things we truly enjoy doing as we
enter our dotage. I’m hoping my health
holds on for a little bit longer so we can make this happen for a long while J.
