The flight to Tulsa from Mobile was quiet and uneventful, except for a minor delay in Houston. It seems the airplane was leaking massive hydralic fluid from one of the brake lines so there was a 45 minute delay while they replaced the part. We arrived in Tulsa only 20 minutes behind schedule so they picked up lost time in the air. Got to keep those schedules.
I’d rather feel better about the plane landing with both feet working.
Brent’s parents were waiting, and I was glad to see them. It’s the comfort of home. We went to the house, had a lite dinner, and I was in bed unconcious not much longer. I still am lagging in the energy department. Brent keeps telling me that all my energy is going into healing my little finger.
This morning was lazy and then off to the storage room to attack the stuff. There wasn’t as much as I’d feared and we hadn’t filled up the storage room, so that was a relief. Brent’s dad, Kent, and I started attacking boxes without much of a plan. I thought the best plan of action was to check the boxes for damage and then make notes of what we found with pictures with the digital camera, and then check inside to see what was damaged.
What ended up happening is that we opened up every box, did a cursory look for things Brent and I needed, shook and rattled things to see if they would jingle or jangle to signify breakage, and then close up the box and label it so we knew what was in it.
I thought there would be more sentimentality, but as we worked in the direct sunlight, getting hotter and hotter in what should be freezing cold, I put aside all sentimentality and went for things of critical importance.
Once again, this meant making decisions to leave paperwork, research, and MY WORK in storage. Over and over again I make the decision to put my work in storage and to move on. There is a lesson here, and maybe it is that I devalue my own work, or maybe it is that I am willing to be the one to sacrifice for the sake of space, peace, and happiness, but for now, this is the decision I make as the things we have to have pile up and the rest can just be put on hold.
I get what is most important, and that is a huge lesson. In my programs on self-improvement and travel, I talk about learning to live with less by learning to give it up first. Until you can let go of the STUFF, you can’t live with less. It’s a fact. It is the emotions caught up in the STUFF that have to be dealt with, not just the physical presence of the STUFF. Time and again I keep shrinking down my life and reconsidering the stuff I want in my life. I accumulate, but the choices are wiser. Books, though, are still the hardest things to part with. Not only do I love books, I love to look at books. For me, they are a kind of artwork and I derive great pleasure from looking at books.
So we went through each box, digging in deep as they didn’t all consist of the related items from the top. One by one we found the things Brent and I had put on our list to bring back to the trailer. Kent pulled the boxes out of the storage room into the sunlight and I plowed through them and then we packed them back up, wrote the key words on the outside to help us identify the contents, and then he stacked them back in the little room. We did all the boxes in one day. Amazing.
It really went like clockwork, one box after another, and even time to stop for lunch at Braums, my idea of perfection in a hamburger, and back to work. We’re totally worn out and I can hardly concentrate enough to write this. The only little bug in the oinment was that we lost the lock for the door. I don’t remember even seeing it after he unlocked it, and maybe it got packed away, but it was gone. So we ran out and bought another one, no big deal, and the first one will show up someday…in a box.
So the unpacking and repacking is done and tomorrow I go through the stuff I pulled out and condense it down for Brent’s parents to haul to Brent in their motorhome. They are leaving in a couple weeks to head down there to spend a few days with him, then pick me up at the airport in Mobile and leave the next day. They are heading to Florida where they will babysit their grandkids at Disney World and the rest of the fun play centers while the parents attend a business conference. That is some seriously good grandparenting! And lucky kids.
I’m off to Seattle on Saturday, with enough time to attend another church tea!!! That will be fun to report on.
I’m going to bed now. My bones are totally worn out and my poor finger is throbbing. But the main work is DONE!