A lot can happen in a year….

It's been quite a year since my last entry. My wife's father died in the Fall, and my own father, Hank, who was living with us, got progressively more ill over the Winter and died in February. Our 2nd son went off to medical school; our 1st son and his wife came back to take on a church in north Georgia, and our 3rd son struggled mightily with not being where he wanted to be. Things got progressively more squirrely at my workplace, serious talk of downsizing the library and getting rid of supportive staff, etc., and things just got too damn stressful for my wife at her job. So, we took each other's hand, smiled, and jumped.

Of course it wasn't quite that quick. It takes a bit of doing to get the wheels of retirement in motion; and my wife is still covering bases at her work while they search for a replacement for (unreplaceable) her. And we had to arrange a move out to my wife's family farm, and set up the terrace apartment in our Decatur home for ourselves, and find a renter for the upstairs where we had been living. And throw away a bunch of stuff, have a huge estate sale, and actually get a truck (actually, 3 trucks) and hire some young men and move. And figure out the money. And the health insurance. And figure out where our 3rd son, out of school, could live.

But we did it! So we are now happily downsized, with our mortgage partially offset, and enjoying an idyllic month thus far at The Farm. Quite a year….