It is Getting Real

Welcome to our 17th post to our Baby Boomers Move to France” blog. A lot has happened this week and this wild adventure that we are into is truly getting real. I usually write a little something just about every day, but this week has been super busy so I’m finally sitting down to write on Friday, May 9th. Thanks for hanging in there with us. We are excited and there is so much to tell you.

Busy week

Let’s start with Monday. We started a load of laundry, and the washing machine decided to go bonkers. We had put in some towels, and we thought that maybe the machine was out of balance so went in to check on it as it was making a horrible noise. The thing was bouncing around like crazy. I opened the machine door and out came a bunch of suds. What the heck? We cleaned up the suds and rearranged the load and started it up again. It seemed a little better but just not right. Once again it started bouncing like crazy. We noticed that the tub was like free floating and hanging by a thread. We unloaded the tub and called an appliance repair service. (West Coast Repairmen) A guy came over that morning and diagnosed the problem in about 5 minutes and said he can repair it and would order the needed parts. He said he would have it repaired by Friday. I followed up and sure enough he said he would be here this afternoon (Friday). Fingers crossed.

EB did manage to send the Cocktail mixer machine and wind chimes to Cindy this week.

You will remember that last Friday I sold the teardrop camping trailer. Before I handed the trailer keys over, I removed the license plate. One of my chores for Monday was to take the license plate to the Department of Motor Vehicles and drop it off. It went like clockwork.

Next, I took the cash from the sale of the trailer and the sale of the Murphy bed to the bank and all is well.

Elizabeth and I decided that we needed some packing supplies so went to Home Depot. We were in and out in no time and brought home some boxes and bubble wrap. We still are struggling with decisions of how much stuff to take and even what to take. Of course, we need to take some clothes so we started with winter clothes and packed what we figured we could start the winter out with and sealed everything in vacuum bags to minimize the space. That was going well until we realized that the tape we were using to seal the cardboard boxes with just wasn’t sticking (sigh). It was some old tape that had been in the garage for years. We packed some pictures in cardboard and gave up as the tape was frustrating the heck out of us. I gotta go back to Home Depot for new tape.

We had plans for dinner with friends Monday evening (Cinco de Mayo), so we didn’t get much else done. Dinner with friends at Pineapple Tequila is always fun.

Tuesday was fun as I played golf at Jacaranda West. My foursome did pretty well, and it was fun. I always look forward to playing golf and the comradery with the Grand Palm golfing group. Elizabeth held down the fort and did her work with Tervis.

Wednesday was another fun day for me. Cory’s dad, AP invited us out for golf at his club, The Oaks. So, Cory, Frank AP and I had a blast on the course. I didn’t do all that well, but it is always fun on the golf course. Elizabeth and I had dinner plans with our regular monthly group. I’m going to miss those monthly dinners with the friends that we met when we first moved to Venice. We had joined those Thirsty Thursday events at the pool that were so good for us. That was before Covid. We had a nice dinner at Bonefish.

Thursday was French lesson for me at ACE in Sarasota. The 2 hour sessions go by so quickly. I think I’m learning some French though. On the way to class I stopped at the title company. They wanted a plot map of our villa. I hope that means everything is good for the house sale.

Afterwards I worked on the table and bench for Cindy and Don. The legs needed to be removed for shipping. Each leg is attached to the underside of the table and bench with 4 Allen head screws. Pretty dang sturdy. It is a good thing too. The table and bench are solid wood and heavy. We are not sure when the shipping company will come, but we are ready,

I also finalized the Traveling Mailbox account set up. Our mail will be forwarded starting next week. I expect there might be a little lag. I wanted to get this mail thing figured out and tested before we leave. It is a cool set up. This company receives our mail and scans the envelops. If we want the contents, they can open and scan that too. They automatically shred junk mail. If we want mail forwarded to us (without having the contents scanned) anywhere in the world, we just give them an address and call it done. I will let you know what I think after we have tested it for a few months.

Thursday was a special day as we got our French address. It is the little place in Duras that I mentioned last week. WIFI is not an issue after all. It is a perfect spot for a home base as we continue to get to know France and look for a final hometown.

Friday and it is a super busy day as we have the washing machine repair guy coming, Darrel is coming to get the Murphy bed for Debbie and Sean our financial guru is coming this morning and I still haven’t done my Duolingo French lesson.

Sean came over right on time and we had a great meeting with him. We want to protect EB’s 401K, and I want to be sure we have EB set up with a verifiable income, so we have that documentation in place for our visas and French bank account applications. He first worked with EB, and they figured out how to protect her 401K. It was pretty straight forward and both EB and I are happy with the plan for now. Then with some fancy foot work he managed to arrange our existing Schwab accounts such that Elizabeth has a reliable income stream. If we are lucky and the government doesn’t mess it up, EB will be able to wait until she hits 70 before taking her SS. We have a plan for how we will protect the proceeds from the house sale so when we are ready, we will have it for the purchase of a house in France. What a load off of our minds. It has been keeping me awake at night.

Darrell came over with a trailer and we loaded up the Murphy bed for Debbie. It is a beast. We got the bed tied down and secured to the trailer. All is good. I’m so glad that Debbie wanted it and he could take it to her.

The washing machine repairman called and is on his way. It is a good thing because we need to get a week’s worth of laundry cleaned. I’m glad this happened before the new owners moved in. I would hate for them to have a bad experience upon moving in. The machine is working fine now.

We booked our one-way flights to Paris including Rosie and Artimis. We booked an extra seat just in case Rosie has an anxiety attack. Elizabeth found that Jet Blue allows pets in the cabin on our laps, and we can even book a seat for them. There is a limited number of pets per flight, but we are booking far enough in advance to insure availability. Jet Blue doesn’t take pets in the cargo area. The booking took about an hour on the phone. I think it is all set.

All in all, Friday was a productive day.

Speaking of anxiety, I think Elizabeth and I need some gummies. LOL

Saturday was another productive day. We sorted more clothes, and I took 3 big bins of clothes and shoes to the Goodwill collection site. The bedrooms are pretty well cleared of personal things,

We met Debbie and Jan at Coopers Hawk for lunch and a bottle of wine. Jan and Debbie are long time friends and they wanted to celebrate EB’s birthday. It was good to see them and lunch was excellent as usual.

By the time we got home it was just about time to meet over at John and Denises house for train. Marshall and Pam joined us too. Denise had a cake, so we all celebrated Elizabeth’s birthday. By the way, Denise won the Mexican train game. She started out strong and never let up.

We got to sleep early and woke up Sunday ready to get to work.

Sunday, we continued sorting clothes and finalizing what we will take on the flight and what we will ship to France via “My Baggage”. Elizabeth found this guidance on how much to pack for a week. It goes something like this: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. That is 5 sets of under ware, 4 shirts, 3 pants, 2 pairs of shoes and 1 jacket. We did a trial packing run in each of our small carry-on rolling bags; there is still a ton of room left. We will be wearing one pair of shoes, so we don’t need to pack 2. Since we are traveling in summer, we won’t need a heavy jacket.

It is amazing how much stuff we collect and keep over time. For example, we cleaned out our bedroom drawers and found an old phone with the screen cracked, chargers, shoestrings, jewelry, belts, a couple of my old bow ties, a regular tie, knee braces that never were any good, and an old slide rule that my parent bought for me when I started my Engineering degree at Cal State Univ – Long Beach. I never did get very proficient with it as handheld calculators took over soon after I started back to school. That was after my time in the US Army. I went to Engineering School on the GI bill. Like so many other guys that were going to school on the GI bill I was really lucky. I get a little choked up when I think how lucky I am. Anyway, I have carried that slide rule with me for about 50 years. That slide rule was not a good luck charm, but it does bring back some memories and reminds me how fortunate I am. It is on its way to Goodwill too.

Sunday will wind down with EB doing a little work for Tervis on her computer, I will finalize this posting. Then we will relax, have something simple for dinner, a glass of wine and go to bed early.

Change of plans

It is funny how our plans morph as we get deeper into the move details. The more we think about it the more we realize that we do not need to take all of our pictures to France. First, they will have to stay in storage for a while, will they get damaged? 2nd, the logistics of packing and shipping and paying for everything seems a waste of effort and time and money. Yes, all of those pictures bring back fond memories of the many trips we have taken over our almost 20 years of marriage. I guess we will just have to make more memories. We can live with that. Pictures that we absolutely have to take with us, we will take them out of the frames and buy frames whenever we get the place to hange them! We have some decisions to make again. We have a couple of art pieces that are fairly large. Maybe the new owners of the house will like them. Very nice gifts.

What’s on the agenda for next week?

There are a bunch of things to do next week. I better write a list, or I will get sidetracked and forget.

1. Follow up with French Connections HCB on our Visas. I think I have sent all of the needed documents. I just need to double check.
2. Order a hard banjo case capable of shipping my banjo in checked baggage.
3. Another Goodwill run and a stop at Beall’s Outlet to drop off a ton of plastic hangers that we got with clothes purchased there. We don’t need to ship hangers to France.
4. Assuming EB gets the okay to leave some pictures in the house we will get those put in place.
5. Golf on Tuesday. I’m sure that I won’t forget that.
6. EB has her gall bladder surgery on Wednesday. We won’t forget that. We won’t get much done that day.
7. Thursday, EB needs to concentrate on her recovery, and I will spend a little time organizing the garage and do a little yard work.
8. If she is up to it, EB will work on the spreadsheet that we want to leave the new owners. This spread sheet will include service people that we have used and where all of the user manual for the appliances are stored.
9. I need to make sure EB is comfortable as she has a day to recover from her surgery.
10. Not sure if Uship will pick up the table and bench for Cindy and Don. Hope so.
11. My French lesson got moved to Friday this week.
12. Follow up on the French car arrangements. I think we have decided to rent or lease rather than buy.
13. Sean, our financial advisor, will meet with us on Saturday to finalize our plans for the next few years. EB is confident that she will be up for it even though not fully recovered. It could be 5 weeks before full recovery,
14. Sunday, I would like to take a drive by the place in Northport that we will be staying in for the next 2 months.
15. Get back to work on the French bank account paperwork.

I’m sure there are other things, but this will keep us busy for the week.

I’m looking forward to another productive week and sharing updates on the progress of our move to France.

Thanks for reading and for your encouragement. Life is a big adventure, Elizabeth and I are enjoying sharing this phase of the adventure with you. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. We are down to about 11 weeks before we fly to France and start that part of our life adventure.

As always, have a great week, take good care of yourselves and see you next week (a la semaine prochaine)