Happy Vernal Equinox!

 

Well, the exact moment was yesterday evening, but this is the first full day of spring.  A lot has happened in the last year: one year ago, we were considering making a move... from the Tropical Tip... to somewhere closer to Steph and Dan.

Steph was lobbying hard for us to get a NextGen house together.  I proposed a duplex, preferably in a 55+ community.  And here we are in a NextGen house 3 blocks from an elementary school.  It's all about compromise, huh?

Things started rolling fast in those last 10 days we were in Arizona last year: we picked out a lot and had Steph and Dan pick their "top 3."  All 4 of us picked the same lot.  We put money down on it, secured the lot and had a plan: first order of business was for each of us to sell the house we had at the time.  With that done, Steph and Dan had to move to an apartment/house, our buyer didn't want to take possession until late fall, so we still had a place to live.  Steph and Dan made their first move last year, into that one bedroom apartment... the housing market in Phoenix is booming, so they felt fortunate to find a nice, new place.  We both rented storage units.  We went on vacation to the Black Hills while Steph and Dan worked.  When we came back, our move started in earnest.  Meanwhile, Steph and Dan sent us progress photos and videos as the new house took shape.

In October, we packed the last of our stuff into two U-Haul pods and waved good-bye to them when they were hauled away (hoping our stuff would actually show up in Phoenix).  We moved into the motorhome, spent a couple days with the new owners, getting them better acquainted with their new house.  Then, we hit the road.

The house was going to be ready a month sooner than the "promised by" date; we lived in the motorhome while we waited for the closing date.  Lots to get done: furnishing the new house, getting landscaping scheduled, then staring the moving-in process in November.  Steph and Dan moved in a couple weeks later.

And here we are, one year later.  I can't speak for the other 3, but I had reservations about all this... living in the desert, the move from a small island to the 5th largest city in the US, the 4 of us living in close proximity - it was a lot of changes all at once.  Turns out it has been a very good move.  The new house is nice; I really appreciate having Steph and Dan right next door.  There is never a shortage of things to do, shopping or restaurants here in the big city.  I get to make music regularly with my buddy Mark and the new friends he introduced me to.  South Mountain is the view from our house, and I ride the fun roads there regularly.  I added another scooter to the garage.

One tough heartbreak: we held our big boy Rufus while he crossed that Rainbow Bridge.  We miss him everyday.  We brought a new little furry boy into the family, Murphy Jones.

It has been a year of many changes.  And now we look forward towards our first spring in the desert.

--------

I rode my motorcycle east to visit a friend today.  Unfortunately, my friend is in a rehab hospital after breaking a hip when he fell.  His wife came in after he and I had been visiting a while... I won't mention any names, but she is a regular reader of this blog.  I feel for my buddy; it is apparent that he has a lot of pain.  He just started doing physical therapy on Monday; the fall was two weeks ago.

He told me he could stand up, and walk on his own (with a walker)... I said, "Great - let's get you out of bed and into a chair so you're sitting upright."  I helped move his legs a bit to rotate him in the bed, but he did the rest (I was there "to catch" if necessary).  A bit of "tough love"?  Maybe, but from experience, I know how tough it is to work against the pain... and it takes a lot of that to make progress.

He looks good and can be tough when necessary.  This is one of those necessary times.  He will need to get mobile enough to go back to his home state up north.  Time, effort, and nutrition.

My Mother came back from a broken pelvis at 89.  She did not want to do the physical therapy because it hurt.  I gave her much "tougher love" to get her to really go after the PT.  She wasn't happy with me at the time, but later thanked me.  As I get older (and feel it every day), I am reminded of one of her sayings: "Getting old isn't for sissies."  I thought that was funny when she first said it... not so funny anymore.