July, Every Few Years
Jul. 31st, 2016 05:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spryngI took a trip down memory lane yesterday, popping back through LJ over the years - well, over the July's.
Six years ago, at the end of July, we moved from Seattle to Tucson.
Eight years ago, at the end of July, we moved from Florida to Seattle.
Today, at the end of July, we'll finish packing and filling the POD outside our kitchen window. We won't leave until Tuesday because of appointments and painting and apartments and hotels, but we'll be continuing the age-old tradition of moving at the height of summer.
That first time we moved, we shoved everything we owned into a car and drove across the entire country. It was an epic drive and we saw many parts of the country we'd never seen before, staying with family along most of the way. I still remember the way the car struggled mightily through the Rockies and the Cascades, the way we passed through miles and hours and days of cornfields until suddenly we hit the Badlands, the way Seattle and the Sound opened up in front of us and we were there, we had done it. We'd escaped Florida.
That second time we moved, we had help moving boxes and furniture from the third floor to the truck. Lady's dad came out just to drive the truck with us down the west coast, through rain forests and redwoods and strange, dry hills, through the insane traffic of LA (never again), and then across the desert, this alien land increasingly populated by stiff, towering cacti. That trip I couldn't do anything but stare out the window, struck by the stark scenery. I'd seen a little of the SW before - once to visit while Lady interviewed, once to house-hunt - but driving through it was something else.
And now this third time, what will we see? Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, then the comforting sameness of the midwest. New places and old, a mix just like our new home. I've been to the midwest a hundred dozen times, but never lived there. I've lived at that latitude, with snow and darkness and beautiful summers, but not with two cats, not in our own house, not with a baby incoming.
There's still a lot to do. We're maybe 2/3rds packed and then we have to clean and paint and make sure the cats have everything they need and make sure what we need will fit in the car and say goodbye (I'm so bad at goodbyes) and then go. It's going to be a crazy few last days, but that's just how it goes.
And in another two (three?) July's, we'll get to do this again.
Six years ago, at the end of July, we moved from Seattle to Tucson.
Eight years ago, at the end of July, we moved from Florida to Seattle.
Today, at the end of July, we'll finish packing and filling the POD outside our kitchen window. We won't leave until Tuesday because of appointments and painting and apartments and hotels, but we'll be continuing the age-old tradition of moving at the height of summer.
That first time we moved, we shoved everything we owned into a car and drove across the entire country. It was an epic drive and we saw many parts of the country we'd never seen before, staying with family along most of the way. I still remember the way the car struggled mightily through the Rockies and the Cascades, the way we passed through miles and hours and days of cornfields until suddenly we hit the Badlands, the way Seattle and the Sound opened up in front of us and we were there, we had done it. We'd escaped Florida.
That second time we moved, we had help moving boxes and furniture from the third floor to the truck. Lady's dad came out just to drive the truck with us down the west coast, through rain forests and redwoods and strange, dry hills, through the insane traffic of LA (never again), and then across the desert, this alien land increasingly populated by stiff, towering cacti. That trip I couldn't do anything but stare out the window, struck by the stark scenery. I'd seen a little of the SW before - once to visit while Lady interviewed, once to house-hunt - but driving through it was something else.
And now this third time, what will we see? Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, then the comforting sameness of the midwest. New places and old, a mix just like our new home. I've been to the midwest a hundred dozen times, but never lived there. I've lived at that latitude, with snow and darkness and beautiful summers, but not with two cats, not in our own house, not with a baby incoming.
There's still a lot to do. We're maybe 2/3rds packed and then we have to clean and paint and make sure the cats have everything they need and make sure what we need will fit in the car and say goodbye (I'm so bad at goodbyes) and then go. It's going to be a crazy few last days, but that's just how it goes.
And in another two (three?) July's, we'll get to do this again.
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Date: 2016-08-01 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-02 01:24 pm (UTC)I foresee many more moves at this time in the future.
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Date: 2016-08-01 03:28 pm (UTC)Good luck in your packing and travels!
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Date: 2016-08-02 01:25 pm (UTC)