Finally!

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth since I wrote my last blog.  I just have been dropping into bed every night, exhausted.  Well, maybe I exaggerate a little, but it has certainly felt that way.  In the intervening two months, we learned about, went through and recovered from my husband's spinal surgery.  I use the pronoun "we"  quite deliberately, because although he was the one under the knife, he was the one at risk and it was he, who spent six weeks in a space-age collar that totally restrained his neck movements; it was I who worried and hovered around him to keep him from falling before the surgery, I (and our daughters) who paced and worried during the surgery and I, who packed almost our entire household after the surgery (since he could not lift anything over a gallon of milk).

He was not idle, while confined to his alien neck brace, as I did most of the manual labor.  He made lists, contacted people, labeled everything that didn't move, grumbled about the collar, and accepted me yelling at him every time he absentmindedly tried to lift something he shouldn't.

Physical fatigue was not our only experience; no, not be a long shot.  We also manged to overtax our somewhat less responsive brains (than compared with years past).  We planned for essentially, four separate vacations around the world, even though they are really one continuous but, quite elongated event; negotiated the leasing of our house; down sized our belongings; and generally changed our entire way of life.  

Now, finally, the summer is over, his neck is recovered and the collar is in the trash, the house is leased, our belongings are stored and it is our last night in the home we have so loved.  The quiet of our county surroundings is sending us a loud message about how we will miss this reticent retreat, our safe harbour from the chaos of the world.  The peeper frogs and the crickets are chanting their goodbyes and asking us why we are going.  Something we have been asking ourselves this entire summer.  Yet, despite our many trials and worries getting to today, we know that to be retired, physical ailments not withstanding, we still need to grow. We need to dare.  We need to create our own adventures. Finally, all the pieces have been put together and we are about to go off and learn how to be old people.