Here We Go Again! by Hannah Rowan #RomanceGems

It’s July and it’s time to frolic in the ocean, cavort in the pool, or loll in the lake. Or simply sit by the water where negative ions theoretically give off relaxing vibes while simultaneously boosting energy and alleviating depression.

Yes, that makes perfect sense. And while I crave the feel of sand between my toes and the sounds of waves lapping at the shore, what I’m getting this summer is the sound of shopping cart wheels rolling over pavement.

Moving is supposed to be one of the most stressful activities a person can experience. After living in ten different places during the first 20 years of my life, I was lulled into complacency by settling in a house where we stayed for almost 40 years.

But who needs to take care of a big old house when the kids have flown the nest and there’s always something to fix, clean or replace?

Oh, how delightful to move to a condo community where someone else shovels the snow and mows the grass! How lovely to wander off to a pool someone else cleans. Like the pain of childbirth, the horrendous experience of disposing of 40 years’ worth of accumulated possessions and moving the remainders into a new place fades after settling in.

Or it did, until with very little warning, our landlord decided to sell the place out from under us. Lucky for us, we were able to find a new place right across the street.

Easy, right?

You’d think that after the first round of downsizing moving would be smoother. But no. Right now I’m marveling at the amount of junk we managed to squeeze into a little two bedroom condo. It doesn’t seem to matter if we’re moving across the street or across the country.

The timing is the saving grace. Instead of the usually frantic move-it-all-in-one-day process we’ve done in the past, this time there’s a week between the time we own the new place and the time we have to vacate the current one.  It all sounded so simple in theory.

So here we are, loading the shopping carts so kindly provided so people can transport their goods from the garage to their door, and making endless trips across the street to deposit boxes as we pack them.

What we’ve got here is a prolonged period of not knowing where anything went when we need it and not agreeing where anything goes when it gets there.

Looking back, childbirth was a breeze compared to this. I can only hope that amnesia will set in once we’re finally settled, and we’ll have time to find a body of water where we can soak up some of those negative ions.