Its that time of year...

The time of year that all FMIR's look forward to: packing time!

I called Lufthansa and learned, much to my surprise, that we are allowed two checked bags. Now all we need to do is buy some luggage. Since visiting South Africa 15 years ago, we haven't really owned a suitcase larger than a roll-aboard. When returning from Hawaii about 8 years ago, we had to go to Walmart on Maui and buy a cheap bag to get our goodies home in. We have one extra bag, kind of like a roll-on on steroids that will hold quite a lot. We'll fill it and our roll-ons and see where we are. I'm guessing we'll need one more to get the seasonal changes of clothes in.


We've packed a couple boxes for shipping to get our supplies in hand. Easy-peasy.

But there is more to this packing than filling suitcases. We still hold out hopes that we can rent our house for the duration. This means that all our fragile, expensive, and important stuff much be packed away, out of the threat of breakage, vandalism, or theft. This is mostly done but there are, of course, things we can't police until the last minute. It is a bit unsettling. Have you gone through your house, given everything a hard stare and thought, " Am I willing to let a stranger play with that, poor beer on it, and drop it in the floor?". Puts your possessions in a whole new light. I was amazed by how much fit in the "I don't care" category. Maybe we don't need that stuff at all. Perhaps a really big yard sale in our future!

Our rental prospects naturally want to move in on January 1. This poses a new and interesting problem since the car taking us to Dulles picks us at home on the 10^th. We have notions about how to solve this and once we know the house will rent and our notions pan out, I'll let you know.

We are also filling birds at a furious pace. Several tons of bird seed had gone out our back door in the last couple weeks, much to the delight of the neighborhood birds. I'm guessing that once we leave, you'll see chickadees and sparrows out on the street with tin cups begging for a 'spot 'o seed'. Could be a major famine in the making.