7/6   8PM Ashland
After a long day's drive we're in Oregon! At the Wild Goose Cafe no less. As MM said, the slow pace was just what we needed. Just looking at the scenery and driving, following the route on the paper map, perhaps catching a catnap if not driving.

 On the road we're calculating 20 mpg at 75 MPH.  Giving us a conservative range of 250 miles on a tank of gas. Drivers changed after gas and meal breaks seems to give each of us enough rest.


 Breakfast at the rodeway inn after a fitful night's sleep.  Sleep does not usually come easily to me these days, and I've had a lot of caffeine lately.  But after some watery coffee, some chilled canned apricots, and some granola, we're on our way to Kinko's.

Stopping at Medford to print and sign 16 pages that get us into escrow.  Multiple phone calls to our realtor and to the escrow company. Then scan and mail back to the escrow company.

We hope to be through with this nonsense soon.  This stuff is more wearing than travel.

Spectacular sendoff

Gorman/ LeBec: Studio 6

Orah came up to help us with our third truckload of household/ garage goods on Friday. We loaded what we had packed into a 17 foot truck that night, and Orah took us to Frito Misto in Hermosa Beach, where we have had a number of good meals before.  We filled it about 2/3 of packed to the gills.  Saturday we drove it to the storage place, and Orah did well consolidation what we had stored so that more could be added.  She parted with us there in Industry and drove MM’s car home. Angelica came to clean the last time, and we set out packing the rest of our stuff. 

Sunday morning we stopped for some self-care, going to Saint Cross for the last time. We thought the Summer Breakfasts would have started but I was wrong by a week, and so we went to The Kettle, our favorite café, in Manhattan Beach, to get fed and revisit another touchstone.  The PIC Greg Brown gave us a blessing and appreciation with a laying on of hands with the rest of the congregation.  A good way to channel the grief at parting to turn toward the future.  I did not find time to visit the community garden, though, and offer what feedback I could; that was disappointing.  Judy Soper offered us her guest room when we came for a visit, though, and now I think we will take her up on her offer when we travel through next month.  We went to Floyd’s and got badly-needed haircuts and then back to work.  Mary worked on the office and her personal clothes; I worked on the garage, and packed up the useful tools and materials I thought worthwhile saving.  We had Ramen noodles for lunch and some fruit. That left a lot of junk, and the trash bins were again filled to the top just two days after pickup, so we called Jose Peña and his truck to haul out the rest on Monday morning. More Ramen for dinner, along with some frozen spinach, and the spare eggs. 

Where it went.

 

Where it came from

Monday Morning July 4 started with a blitz to bring all the remaining trash to the garage before Jose arrived at 8:30. His was a small flat bed truck, and this was the third time he had visited us to pick up stuff for the dump- once with remodeling debris, and twice with trash of various descriptions.  I was amazed to think of how much we had accumulated over the years, but it was finally gone.

We used our coffee pot for the last time before packing it away, fried up the last eggs and two slices of toast in the frying pan which got packed. That left us with leftovers to get rid of, and from the freezer we gave three packages of chicken, frozen herbs like Oregano and Mint, and ahi.

Then the last load to Industry.  With the help of more casual labor  we got it done and cleaned up the house, and by 8:45PM we were rolling, departing under skies filled with fireworks.


Gorman: burgers. As we left town all the people were setting off fireworks, presumably in our honor, to give us a gala send off. A prayer before we left helped set the tone, but some mother's tears were shed in remembrance of the children we raised in the home we were leaving.

Never mind

This kind of drama is right in the wheelhouse for this blog.  It seems that the buyer backed out suddenly. Nonetheless we're getting out of here before we go to Oregon. 

Some flowering trees in San Diego.

Some flowering trees in San Diego.

Driving around Point Loma I was impressed with the Gold Medallion trees I remembered from Hawaii.   Noting the compound leaves I thought they might be nitrogenfixers, and Looked them up.  Cassia Leptophylla is a member of the Fabacea family, which are nitrogen fixing.  Jacaranda, not so much.

Cassia Leptophylla- Gold Medallion tree

Cassia Leptophylla- Gold Medallion

Jacaranda?

Jacaranda?

Love your House! Now get out.

Wow, once listed, we have been getting lots of bids for our home.  We decided on one that was $10K over the listing price, but needs us to get out in 3 weeks.  Only trouble is, we're leaving town in 3 days, and might not be back.  So we are back and packing- getting a truck and trying to get all our stuff out right away.  Panic.  So we're facing another difficult week, then we'll be homeless.

We flee to San Diego

We have retreated to Mom's house at Point Loma- with my sister Orah and her DH Jeff keeping their eyes on Grace, who needs a bit of help at times to live an independent life. We will ask them and MM's Dad to keep various items not allowed in storage,  like propane bottles, until we have a place to put them.

Sharon presided over Open house starting at 1pm, and we got ourselves out of the way.  We re not the kind of people who could live in a house and keep it spotless, so we are taking refuge here for a few days, before we return to collect our camping gear and head out to MM's family reunion on the coast of Oregon.

Cozy nook for Mom in front of the picture windows.

 The west-facing windows offer a spectacular view of the sun setting on the Pacific.  At sunset the living room or the lath-covered area just outside is a great place to be nursing a class of wine.

Sunset in Grace's back yard

Lath sheltered patio

Sinking sun adds color to distant offshore marine layer

But for now the late afternoon sun is a bit too stifling for me, and I retreat to the East side where a ledge overlooking a little Northeast facing garden.

 

The garden features a huge Sago palm, with staghorn and maidenhair ferns, and night-blooming cereus.

Looking out from this sheltered spot, screened from the street, is a good place for reading, writing, or people watching.

We listed our house today

You can now google our address and unit number and bang, our listing comes up. 13921 Kornblum Ave Unit 16, on many listing services.

At our advanced ages, neither of us has sold a house before. We are performing all the myriad of little jobs we need to do,  in a kind of daze.  Luckily our good friend Sharon Pierce has held our hand through this whole process, and things are going well. Sharon was our buyer's agent when we bought this, and she is the seller's agent now- so it's a full-cycle service.  The adjective she chose to use for our place was "sparkling."  Our house. Imagine!

Sunday: 

Sharon will be here soon and we are going out of town for a few days.  The last few items to store in Grace's and Dale's houses, that we can't put into a storage locker.

Didn't even try to make it to church, and we'll sleep in San Diego. Back midweek to review offers and grab our camping stuff for our Northwest tour.