Mission Accomplished

When last we met, it was the day before the big move. Hence, this post is a recap of the mission which went well. There were a few hiccups along the way, but all in all it went as well as can be expected with two senior citizens and a little bit younger man involved.  Early Tuesday morning, around 6:45, we drove over to Keith's nearby house to pick him up before heading to the airport where they were renting a car for the drive to Atlanta. A beautiful sky was our companion.

There was a time when I was what Maureen termed, "a confidant driver." She marveled at how fearless I was on the road. Along with Maureen, that time has passed, thus when Bruce asked me to drop them off at the airport and drive his vehicle, my response was less than enthusiastic. However, having just watched 13 Lives the night before, I realized just how silly it sounds to say I can't do such and such! Have you seen it yet? It's on Amazon and while I can recommend it, saying that I liked it is a bit of a stretch. Not because it is not well done, but because the subject matter is so challenging! That said, there is a happy ending which helps. 

Bruce with his dollies and tool bag looks fairly cheerful doesn't he? Keith, meanwhile looks cool as a cucumber which he remained throughout the challenging two days. The drive up there was uneventful, returning the car went well, but as to the U Haul place, it left a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, Nancy had done a remarkable job being ready with everything packed up, something that surprised Keith, only because he doesn't know what a worker bee she is! They had dinner at the nearby Bahama Breeze Bruce built (hey, say that a few times fast!), and went to bed hoping for a good night's sleep before the moving help arrived in the morning. Except they actually didn't come as scheduled. Good thing that there were three excellent workers in the house! Three hard hours of work later, Bruce and Keith hit the road in the truck with Nancy completing a few last minute tasks before, she too, left Atlanta for what she hopes is her last time driving to Orlando. Woo hoo!

Me, what did I do those two days? I do remember playing pickleball at Dover Shores, I rode my bicycle a little bit, and Lord knows what else! I did visit the front gardens where the butterflies flit from one flower to another.

I remember, I did a little shopping. While at Marshalls I picked up some foam oven rack cleaner which seemed like just the ticket when I bought it. Three dirty racks awaited the treatment, except, the foam was anything but easy to apply. First I laid one rack on some newspapers on the front walk. Lame. Throwing the paper away in the dumpster, I discovered a box that appeared to be just the right size. By golly, it was.

The box may have worked well, but man, what an ugly photograph!! Although not perfect, I am loving opening the oven to see mostly clean racks inside.

Another day my upstairs neighbor Julie texted saying that the Spoonbill was out back. Yes ma'am! 

Little did she know that there was a bird fest out there at 1:00 in the afternoon. So you see the Wood Stork, here's a TriColored Heron,

and there was a Great Egret in the water as well, along with an Anhinga in the tree above me. Whoa Nelly! The only bird to stick around was this lovely Little Blue Heron preening in a nearby tree.

Seriously, if you were to look up Florida shorebirds, this little backyard visit, yielded most of them in one fell swoop.

Around 6:30, the gang arrived and I drove over to meet them. God bless Keith for so many reasons, but in this instance, he insisted we unload the truck because he would be unable to help in the morning. And so we did. Can you imagine how tired everyone was? Not me, of course, but seriously what a day they had. Following the emptying of the truck, Nancy locked her new home and we met for a much-needed beer for Bruce at Johnny's nearby. Followed by collapsing into bed at our place.

Nancy made an early Starbucks run for her and Bruce, and then we drove over to get started. Nancy and Bruce took the truck to the drop off place and after returning, we all got to work opening boxes and figuring out where things should go. 

Yup, the kitchen came together very nicely with more than enough cabinet space. Her table fit beautifully in the kitchen and check out the living room after some hours of work. Bruce had me smile for the picture and somehow I actually did not screw it up!

What I so like about her place is the built-in-character, what with the glass blocks and terrazzo floors. Those balloon dogs! Aren't they fun? Elephant love too.

As you can well imagine, this is how Mr. Peck spent a good deal of Friday!

Duh, I left out the part that stairs were involved at Nancy's Atlanta apartment! Bruce is strong, but carrying furniture down stairs is not something he plans on doing again! Years ago he helped Matt in his move from Atlanta to Chicago when he was a student at Northwestern, and oh my goodness. Not just one flight of stairs, but about three. Then again, he was probably just about the same age as Matthew is now. 

With Nancy's move completed, it got me to thinking about our move to the condo. Having a blog helps greatly because one does not have to rely on a faulty memory, one can just look at the dates and find the information written as it happened. Reading through those posts, I found a lot of things I'd forgotten, some that made me sad, and some that made me happy. This post, oh my goodness, reading about my last day at the market....  Actually, once we quit, I pretty much never looked back because it was always more about my love of taking photographs than making money. Every now and again though, I do a Google search on Gail Peck photography and it always amazes me when something like this comes up. 

I last wrote that we were not having much rain, however, this week we experienced some pretty impressive storms, although they have been mostly at night. Jonathan and Alissa returned from their trip to Hawaii, marred by coming down with Covid. Speaking of which, it seems to me like it is still running rampant. Julie's husband Bill had it last week. How we have managed to remain Covid-free is beyond me!

While Nancy is getting settled, we are back to our routine of playing pickleball most days along with Sunday church where the flowers were just so pleasing. That's the only way I can describe it.

Following the service a representative of the Zebra Coalition gave an excellent presentation about their services for Queer youth, his description, not mine. 

It's really heartening to learn about how many more options there are these days for not only housing but therapy for both the youth and their parents. When our son came out, I was scared, having been active in my career during the AIDS crisis. Watching young people get sicker and sicker and then die will do that to a person. That said, he was careful, I cried for two days, and with the help of one of our pastors, accepting it real quick. Mom's are allowed a few tears when they are afraid for their children! Now I cannot imagine life without our wonderful son-in-law Tom. The times they are a changing. :)

This happened today! By the way, I am feeling just fine although I imagine I will be hard-pressed to still be playing pickleball when I am 94 like Joe. Seriously!

I've been saying it is a game for all ages! Although he probably is not as quick as he once was, he does have some wicked soft shots.

Oh yeah...49 years and counting on Thursday. Thinking of going away for a few days, but we shall see. Never want to get ahead of ourselves. 

your friend,

Gail