The end of an era

It is finished.

We continued packing and preparing to move the things family members wanted, and we held a very large garage sale on a Saturday and Sunday. We had pretty good luck getting rid of many of the items but were still left with quite a bit of furniture and some other things. Dale's van was immensely valuable as we used it to take two large loads to Goodwill. We also used his van to move furniture to Julie's house. Marie and Adam borrowed his dad's pickup and came for their things.

We continued to advertise furniture on Craig's list and has some success over time. We had to keep dropping prices until things were practically being given away. In fact, we finally advertised a couple things as "free", just to get someone to come take them away. Even the beautiful side by side refrigerator/freezer that lists for almost $1,900 did not sell until we lowered the price to just $250, and we finally ended up donating the dining room set to friends in the church. We donated much of Mother's art materials to a church school and another art school. We also took a van load and two car loads of items to the church where they covered 6 large tables. We just asked people to make a donation to the church in Mother and Dad's name if they could.

On Monday, January the 31st, the moving van with items going to Texas and Tennessee left, and Tuesday the moving van going to Rochester departed. The only thing left was a trundle bed which we loaded into the van along with boxes of other things for cousins Carrie and Nancy. We also took with us many boxes of family heirlooms that still need to be scanned. They now fill the upper bunk in the truck.

We spent the night at our home in Bakersfield, then convoyed to Turlock on Wednesday with Dale to deliver the bed and some of the boxes to Carrie. Dale and I visited Mike, then Carrie fixed us all a nice dinner while Dale and I built a fire in the fireplace. The next morning we said goodbye to Dale as he left for the coast to do some sightseeing and to deliver the remaining items to cousin Nancy in Arroyo Grande. Before we separated we spent most of the morning touring the airplane museum at what used to be Castle Air Force Base.

I don't know what we would have done without Dale's help and his van. He made so many trips with his van full of things. He and I also confirmed the fact that we really don't want to do furniture moving for a living. We did plenty to prove that. It was also great just having him with us. It gave us a chance to become real brothers again. I can't explain it, but in some ways it seemed like we had never been apart for all those years. I'm sure glad he is back in my life again. Thanks, man.

On Saturday the 5th we went to the house one last time to clean it for the new owners. Although we thought we had already emptied it, we still took another car full to church and filled all our trash barrels as well as the neighbors. About 5 PM we left our keys on the kitchen counter and locked all the doors. I pushed the button on the garage door opener and then jumped over the electric eye as it closed.

We had dinner that evening with Julie and Michele, then drove home to Bakersfield. It was tough saying goodbye to them too. Everyone has done so much under very difficult circumstances. We are going to miss them.

The house closed on Tuesday the 8th.

We are now in Bakersfield, catching our breath and getting ready to resume our "normal" life. We have neglected some maintenance on the truck and trailer, and have been taking our time getting ready to move again. Dianna has had a bad cold but is finally on the mend. We plan to leave here on Tuesday and make our way to Arizona to be there when Dave and Lisa visit. We don't know how long we will stay or exactly where we will go from there, but we want to be in Texas for Deidra's graduation as well as Dayna's MBA. We also have some things we would like to do to the trailer. It is nine years old now and it's time for some upgrading and remodeling.

One era ends. Another continues.