6 Aug 2004

Hello Boys and Girls,

As of yesterday, we have a firm house settlement date of September 3, 2004. All the contract contingencies have been waived by the buyer. It's looks like it's a go. So also, yesterday, I gave the Town of Hancock my 30 day notice. And as this is a small Town, and everyone knows what we are doing anyway, there were no real surprises. This just makes it official, and the Mayor and Council will be meeting next week to see if they can find someone crazy enough to accept the position.

Just a few little odds and ends to deal with in the next couple of weeks. Find a good diesel 1-ton truck when the supply seems to be extremely limited. Sell one more car, but not before we get the truck. Get rid of a couple of tons of stuff. (We talked to the auction house across the street, and we find that he is booked solid for the next month). Store some stuff until we get the trailer we want, but not until the truck is purchased and equipped to handle the trailer. Find good homes for TWO OF THE GREATEST CATS IN THE WORLD, and one fish ... who isn't all that great. Get Donna to whittle down her collection of genealogy and photographs to a size that would fill just a small library, and then find a sucker ... I mean a kindly relative ... who will be willing to store the sacred family history. Get the trailer that we want, that doesn't have an 8-week delivery period. Mail out all the change of address notices when we won't really have an address (this one is tricky). Set up the electronic banking systems we need, without getting our identities stolen in the first week. Select a mobile Internet system and a cell phone system that has a range of North America ... and that is reasonably priced (HA HA HA!). Decide if you really need more than 2 pair of shoes, one tooth brush, two towels, four dishes, a George Foreman grill, a change of underwear, and all the other little decisions you need to make when you have absolutely no idea how much storage room you will really have. (Do we take just one bottle of Vallium, or should we go with a year's supply from that Canadian web site?)

Oh yes, and find an answer to the question that we seem to get the most: "Where are you going first?" We don't know where we are going first. We are just now 99.9% sure that we are ... going ...

Well, that's just a partial list. There are a lots of additional considerations. But damn it, we just won't have the time to deal with the rest of them for a while.

We are probably approaching this in a completely ass-backwards manner. But when you have always approached life in this manner, it's pretty hard to change at this late date. Or as George Bush might say, "Why trade horses in the middle of a canoe?" Or as John Kerry might say, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks, but sometimes you can, if the situation dictates, at times."

Good night.
--
The Logans