Headed Home

It’s been a busy month in Cocoa, Florida while helping Tim get ready for his big moving sale. He hired a professional estate sale person to run the sale, which was a super idea – it’s just way too much stuff for a few ordinary folks to handle. Her crew will set it up for three days, organizing and pricing the items, and the sale will go on for three days toward the end of February.

Tim had another good idea – we took a hastily put-together road trip a couple of weeks ago to OKC to get the rest of my things out of storage and put items in the sale that I didn’t want to take to Panama. We drove Tim’s Honda CRV and loaded it up completely to bring them back with us. Things were tucked and slotted into that cargo area like puzzle pieces!

I also got to introduce Tim to a few of my friends (I apologize to those we didn’t get around to visiting). It was a true working trip – we took eight days and traveled over 3,000 miles! We spent the first night in Atlanta visiting Vanessa. She had wanted me to see her new townhouse before I left for Panama in August, but I couldn’t make it then. We went from there to OKC and spent three days going through my things. That was a long day of driving! On the way back, we went through Fort Worth, TX, where Tim took care of some personal business. We took three days to get back to Cocoa, stopping in for the night in Marshall, TX and Destin, FL on the way home.

Tim’s sister Maggie came down earlier this week from South Carolina to help sort through some of the family items Tim had stored at his house, and she brought a few items with her for the sale. I had spoken with her on the phone a couple of times, but it was great to meet her in person.

Tim rented a “pod” storage unit to help organize and separate the things going to Panama from those to be sold. He has two driveways at his house, so there was a convenient place to put the pod, Over half of the things I brought back will go in the sale, and Tim stored the things in it that he wanted to take to Panama, so most of the house can be used to display items for sale.

Right now, I’m in the Miami airport, headed back to Boquete. I missed my flight from Orlando to Miami this morning – it was an early flight, and the airport was way more crowded than expected. It took me well over an hour to check my bag and go through security. Fortunately, I caught a later flight and have plenty of time before the last leg from here to Panama City, so it worked out OK.

This sale will be a stressful time for Tim, but at least he’ll have professional help to get it done. He really didn’t want me to go today, and threatened to cancel my flight (not really, but he REALLY wanted me to stay). After the sale, he’ll have to arrange for the Panama items to be shipped (another big project). Then he’ll be housesitting for his landlord while they’re on vacation next month. By that time all that happens, it’ll be near the end of March. Hopefully, he’ll be ready to return to Boquete for good by the first of April.

As soon as I get back, I’ll need to start looking for furniture to go in the big, unfurnished house we’ll be renting starting on March 15 (more on that when it happens). That also means I’ll need to pack my things up and move out of my current house by then. So we’ll both be super busy for awhile. It’ll be really nice to be able to take a breath when we get settled from all this moving and rearranging of our lives!