Almost back to normal

We are almost back to normal here in Tampa Bay Land. Put out 6 bags of grass clippings last week from the back yard alone. It was just a little tall! That's what I get for making the back yard too tight for professional yard equipment; I can't hire anyone to cut it while we are gone. What the heck. I need the exercise!

We are working on our long term plan to leave the area; it's starting to look like the process will take a year & a half or so. We have SO much house maintenance that hasn't been done for starters. Then we have to shave our belongings down to some reasonable amount for moving. Finally, it's sell (which may take some time, certainly) and go. Like the rest of the country the Florida housing market has slowed quite a lot. Besides, we have a house that really cries out to be sold either in the early spring or the late fall. When you enter the house, if it can be open to the outside, it sells itself. You have 2000 sq ft of house that connects almost seamlessly to 1500 sq ft of pool deck as your living area. It's great and looks even better. When it is too hot to have the house open (in the summer) you have only the relatively small house to show. It's a nice enough house but in this market you need the extra zing of the outside. Spouse and I have both worked as project managers so you KNOW we'll have list upon list upon list covering THIS project.

In the middle of that 'leaving' plan we need to develop and explore places for the 'where the hell are we going' plan! We really have almost no idea of where we want to move. It could be Northern Florida, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico or even somewhere we haven't considered yet. It's odd to be able to move anywhere we would like. We've always moved for and by our work until we moved here & we moved here to be near our mothers. Now that they are gone, we are free to fly. It will be interesting to see what we eventually do. We plan on doing more traveling to visit possible home bases during the months that the house will be on the market. Should be fun!

Have a great weekend everyone. And don't get stuck on Friday, the 13th!