More Packing Up in August

Returning to Ohio, we again went to the storage unit, this time with a trailer and John, Quinn’s nephew, whom we hired to help load the trailer, as we had a couple of very heavy furniture items to move. We had gotten rid of all our furniture except special family or antique items, which made very few furniture items, but those were there, a couple of them were too heavy for the two of us. John had worked for a moving company for four years and so he was very helpful in loading the trailers to their maximum! He also helped the next week to load another and last trailerload which enabled us to clear out the larger (10x30) of the two storage units we had in Ohio. We had rented the smaller 10x10 in May to make the sorting process easier and it really helped.
So we made 3 trips this month, one with just a van full and then 2 trailerloads, back and forth, back and forth to Springfield IL. We got to know that road quite well! After the last load on August 26th, we dropped the trailer in Illinois as we were going to Chicago that weekend for Ron’s aunt’s 90th birthday party. Hopefully all that was left in the 10x10 unit then would go into the van when we started out for our fall trip north.
The evening of the 26th, we were able to see the grandchildren at Culver’s with their mother, and when we returned on Sunday the 29th, we saw them at Keenan’s house. We had a Project that day: moving 3 tons of rock over to the drainage trench which was to look like a streambed. Yes, it did! And it also worked successfully when it rained! We made moving the rock a game….!

The Month That Was – August 2010

We left Kona on July 30th, returning to Seattle, where we stayed in our son’s condos for a week, needing to move from one to another midweek as they were rented out at different times. Of course, we had a great time visiting the family there. We have a wonderful video of our son, Philip (Andy) giving granddaughter Natalie trumpet tips on the “Carnival of Venice” which she was to perform with the Sammamish Symphony later in August. The home Project to help with was pulling up the carpet for their new carpeting to be installed the following week.
We returned to Dayton, Ohio on August 7th and stayed with our friend Quinn, in Xenia, Ohio, while we saw doctors and dentists and continued to sort our items in the storage unit in Springfield, Ohio.     
     We planned to take more over to our oldest son’s in Springfield, Illinois, hopefully to clear out those Ohio storage units. He also wanted to have us help plan his front yard landscaping, so we had that to look forward to. It did require careful planning for us to visit as his ex- has full custody of the two children, but he has them ½ the time and we are not allowed to see them without special advance permission from her, so he had to “trade” days with her, planning carefully.
     Our first trip was without a trailer, to go as soon as we could, and take over some things he has requested, esp a desk for grandson, Joseph. Joan wanted to take the artificial Benjamin fig; Ron said, “No, he doesn’t want that, there’s no room,” but it fit in, and when Keenan saw it, he said, “Great, for my living room!” and Joan said, …yes, you guessed it: “I thought so!”
     The first night we were there, we went to the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) “Star Party” out at the Emiquon land lab with to see the meteor shower so we were able to meet a number of Keenan’s colleagues.
     On that first trip, we also rented a storage unit there so as not to overpower our son’s basement! and were able to make a lot of progress in the garden work, most notably, digging out a trench for drainage, planning the new beds, and selecting a decorative crabapple.

July 30, 2010 Where to Retire? We Know!….But…

We went to Hawaii this summer to see if it was too hot there in summertime. Well, it was better there than almost anywhere in the whole eastern part of the USA! too hot there, perfect in Kona! We loved it there, but two problems with retiring there: 1) it is so far away from the mainland and family…granted, our friends there said people love to visit you in Hawaii, but they admitted that it costs too much for their families to visit very often, and 2) the VOG on the Big Island is getting worse. So many people here have breathing problems…..???? So, for now at least, that wonderful retirement thought is on hold.

You can guess that we hated to leave, though.

We flew out of Kona on July 30, 2010.