Move Along, Nothing to See Here....

Because there's nothing to see, we've posted no pictures with this episode. We've packed some more boxes, chosen a moving and storage company, found a buyer for the Odyssey, held a garage sale, donated the leftovers to a thrift store, and on and on, but nothing very picturesque.

This is a real trial for old f- folks, at least old folks who have been in their house too long. How attached do you become to "stuff"? What does it mean to keep some things just because they have "sentimental value"? We've talked to a couple of ex-military folks who say that at about the second move overseas involving storage, they're starting to wonder why they stored that appliance that rotted out, or became obsolete, or why that box got into storage. And they were dealing with the government's money; we'll be storing by the pound at our own expense. Live and learn....

Obviously, we're still pointed at a mid-August departure for Bratislava, assuming no health considerations in the family dictate otherwise. Our fingerprints went in to the FBI today, so they can reassure the Slovaks that we're not terrorists. We're also still excited about the prospect of learning about a culture that is foreign to us in many ways beyond just geographics, and yet with people and ways of doing things that we expect will be too familiar (and too American) in many other ways. The new mega-mall with the Sheraton next door, for example. Now the new Rick Steves book that talks about Vienna and Bratislava teaming up to create an entrepreneurial corridor between the two cities with high rises and more mega-malls. Bratislava, the "new Berlin, only smaller." As Erika would say, we're not sure how we feel about that. And we haven't even gotten there yet!

So stay tuned, especially for posts with a little more graphic appeal. We head for California on Wednesday to meet our 7-month-old grand-nephews before, as Paula says, they're too busy with little league. That's precisely the problem we old f- folks have; time goes by too quickly to get everything done that needs doing. And we're not just talking about packing, either....
J&P