CINDERFELLA AND HIS STEPSISTER

While walking on Wednesday (can you believe it was warm and dry enough to walk two days this past week after work!), I asked Ray if his first week of retirement had gone the way he thought it would go.  You know what all retirees say though "I am busier now than I was when I was working!".  That was something he said Monday night.  He had a busy day from start to finish.  We had asked that the painters not come to the house Monday, his first day home, or Friday, my day off.  So on Monday, Ray was able to clean the few windows that were left to be done in our bedroom and the kitchen appliances from top to bottom.  The refrigerator was "not pretty".  He also brought everything up from the basement that is being moved tomorrow and put it all into the garage.  We took an hour walk once I got home from my relaxing day at work and chatted with the neighbors (and future owner of my house).  And then I realized something.  Ray not having to be in bed by eight pm had him as a Chatty Cathy that warm spring night.  I looked over at him and my neighbor and said "hello, I haven't been fed or taken a shower yet, and I have to be up early tomorrow."  :)  It was a mere 6:30, but I had things to do!

The painters came and went for the next three days painting different rooms here and there.  A college kid who is a patient of mine came and repaired the only thing that came back wrong on the home inspection we had done in January.  He replaced a small piece of wood trim that had rotted outside.  The painters will paint over it for us.  But this is where the week was not how Ray had planned for it to go.  While Ray did tell them to paint all over the house since we were now pretty much cleared out of all the rooms, it made it challenging for Ray to be in any one room breaking it down or just relaxing as retirees do in his pajamas/sweats watching TV, so he chose to be out of the house making trips to the lake house with a lot of his own personal things and clothing.  And he also took a lot of odds and ends from the garage.  The good was that the painters moved our bedroom furniture for us, so Ray could clean up along the baseboards.  And the future owner insisted everyday that we not clean the way we have, but there is no way we won't clean floors and appliances and countertops.  We know things will get dusty next week when the handyman comes in to work on installing new electrical outlets and the FO's rip out carpeting on Sunday and drag it out of the house.  We want to leave the house like we would someone to do for us.

Finally, Thursday night comes along which is my Friday.  We went for a bite to eat at a Greek Restaurant down the road that we have only been to one other time.  We are unsure why we haven't gone many more times before, because our meals and the Tres Leches dessert was all very good!  Once home, we were throwing out odds and ends.  Ray just didn't think he could make it to Goodwill one more time.  I happen to have an archaic alarm clock.  I think it dates to the eighties.  I already have an alarm clock at the lake house.  So when Ray asked if I was taking the clock to the lake house, I told him no.  His next comment was "you don't need your alarm clock or this light, so they can go in the trash, right?"  I was busy working very hard in the bathroom, and yes, I did hear what he said (darn these hearing aids!), but I misunderstood what he was really asking at that time.  My response was "right".  Not only have I had to ask Ray to save one cup for me to drink water out of this week (and last night it wasn't there, because he unloaded the dishwasher and took all the plastic cups including that one to Goodwill), but I have also asked that he keep a spoon around for my breakfast yogurt.  (Yes, we have plastic one's at the lake house, but we forgot to bring them here.  And no, Ray hasn't really eating much this week, and he drinks out of a can--not me at all.  I want a cup with ice please haha.)  So the cup was gone and the spoon.  Then, while brushing our teeth last night, Ray said, "Guess we will wake up whenever tomorrow, since neither one of us has an alarm clock".  Really?  My clock is gone, too?


My daughter called the other night to check in and asked us if we were excited about the move to the lake  house.  Our response was that we haven't had time to get excited with the back and forth of packing and unloading (but yes, we were so excited the house sold as easily as it did, and of course, we are excited about the future!), and now we really just want to be in one house for a while.  This house is lighter and brighter and emptier than ever, and it really hasn't been our house for a few weeks.  So yes we are ready to move, and it won't be difficult since we are going to a place of comfort and feel like we left this house a while ago.

 This was one week, I will say this now and not say it again, that I was okay with being at work.  We unloaded our couch and love seat on Sunday, and the gravity lounge chairs are for the birds.  They are comfortable to plop into at the end of the day, sitting by the lake sunning or sitting on the screened-in porch reading, but not long term.  But I can't complain one bit, because we sold all of our furniture all by ourselves!  In one hour, we lose our final TV here.  Tonight we will go to the movies and come home to our bed that is on the floor.  The rest of it has been moved to the garage.

Looks like we could be getting on a plane to Panama!

Clothes laying on the kitchen counter ready to go into car.
Most of the suitcases are empty, but we need them for trips!

The Future Owner asked painters to remove the medicine cabinets.
Notice the hole on the left side of the wall.

The grill and Rubbermaid storage cabinets go to my sisters house.
The things on the right wall go to the lake house tomorrow.

The living room with fresh paint (and not our furniture).

Dining room is newly painted (not our furniture).  

Two dressers waiting for my nephews to help
Ray move them to the truck tomorrow and to my sister's house.

One side of our bedroom newly painted.  The laundry basket
will be used as a suitcase tomorrow.

My closet with the clothes picked out for tomorrow's move.

Just the bed left this morning, and now the mattress sits there.

Ray forgot to leave himself a shirt for tomorrow.
No problem, since we were going to the
lake house he could pick himself up one.

Good laughs this week is all I can say!  It is stressful, it is mentally tiring and also physically tiring.  But we are super focused on the end result, we know we will be in close quarters for a while, and we treat it as practice for that "24/7" which is soon to come.  24 days of work for me until retirement!