Moving to the beat of our own music, declining into happiness and yet, more chapters await!

 

An early morning rise, repeated several times this past month, saw us standing outside the local Starbucks as it opened its doors. There’s something weird about an empty Starbucks, even more so these days as they provide table service. Serving coffee in cups and breakfast sandwiches on plates. We had returned to Colorado with a firm agenda to be followed. Our grandson Evan was scheduled for an operation, our storage area had to be emptied and yes, we had to get new plates for our latest vehicle purchased back at the end of June – the Beast, otherwise known as the Land Rover Defender 110 V8.

Sipping that first cup of coffee, constantly checking my watch, awaiting a call from the folks at 1-800-GOT-JUNK to turn up for that final clean-out of the remaining goods and chattels we felt were way past their use-by-date, no longer holding any emotional attachment. Yes, gone is my thirty-year plus collection of Road and Track magazines with almost 400 issues filling numerous cartons I could no longer pick up. As Margo reminded me (more than once), Richard? Let it go! 

This 50’ x 20’ (height undetermined, but yes, very high), had been the temporary resting place for two vehicles, various items of furniture we had promised to our daughter and our son-in-law, Anna and Erich, not to mention a considerable number of boxes destined for our Florida home and yes, a pile of unrecognizable junk. You just have to do it; not something to leave your kids to sort through.

And yet, at different points in our lives, to Margo and me they represented something important: Sentimental; keepsakes from our previous lives? Perhaps. Now nothing more than disposable junk and as the day ended, so too had these items. All gone … sadness? Not really, and yet a twinge of regret still entered the conversation. But that too is already passing, nothing more than a faint memory.

Earlier this month, this time, Florida and just one day before we were leaving for Colorado, yet another very early morning rise. We are living in a construction zone with traffic utilizing all available parking space, oftentimes leaving just a single lane open to traffic. In a preemptive move, I took our vehicles out of the garage, onto the street and then coned-off about a hundred feet. The last time I coned-off a zone was during our track weekends where we needed a lot of extra parking space for our rig so walking down the road, dropping cones, brought back many pleasant memories.

However, this didn’t generate anywhere near the same emotions. This time, it was more like dread. We knew our moving van line employed a driver with his own rig and it was only recently we learnt that it was a big one, all of our focus was on ensuring he could make it to our home. We even drove the route, taking photos, identifying possible choke points, just to ensure both he and us could see a way through. And then, from around a series of turns, a little later than expected, he showed up on our front door.

The arrival of a big rig more than seventy-five feet in length (twenty-three meters), was an eye-popping experience. To think, all of our goods and chattels, packed so well in Colorado, occupied such a small part of the trailer, carried across the country together with the two other folks’ stuff. From the open ramp entry to the front of the trailer, that was it. All of our stuff! It took a while to sink in knowing, too, there were at least two other households awaiting delivery as the day went on. The local team designated to unpack the trailer had arrived and there was no time wasted as items began to be unloaded.

Margo and I have often thought about our lives together and what it all meant. Its no secret that we had both been married before and that we entered into our marriage after a period of living alone. In short, each of us had stuff we held onto and this was in addition to what we had let go from our Colorado storage facility only a matter of days earlier. But that’s life. It is lived in stages, or chapters, and with each new chapter, it’s necessary to put aside what is no longer important. 

And as we both age, gracefully we hope, there is less and less material items we deem important. Perhaps three hundred plus stemware is an exaggeration, but then again, each piece is part of a bigger story so they are being kept. For how much longer? Cannot tell at this stage but so long as they contribute to the story, so long as they become part of this chapter, they stay.

For the year we have lived in Latitude Margaritaville Water Sound (LMWS), we have marveled at just how many vehicles remained parked outside of garages. Up and down the street, it’s a mix of expensive sedans and coupes, SUVs and pick-up trucks. But now we know. These garages are just full of stuff. Slowly, some vehicles make it back into the garage but not all that often. And now we know why; receiving and then unpacking your household goods is as tiring as packing them in the first place. No one seems to be in a hurry to unpack. Makes you wonder what they are hanging onto if after almost a year, it’s still all sitting in boxes.

The biggest single most visible item on driveways immediately following a moving vans delivery is the ubiquitous twenty-seven-gallon yellow and black totes. They are everywhere. And not just by themselves but arrayed within numerous storage tacks. Perhaps they provide a sense of order that caters to those not in a hurry to unpack. Perhaps too they are viewed as a safe measure should hurricanes make landfall. Of course, we now have six of them, together with black storage racks, just in case.   

Perhaps our most treasured furniture is our outside settings courtesy of Pottery Barn. Constructed from Acacia wood and topped in concrete, these are most definitely hurricane proof. The downside is that together, Margo and I cannot move them so given that they were placed in a random manner, we now have folks coming back in to help position them as we planned. Our backyard is an extension of our home.

The Lanai is covered and to date, the rain squalls that have descended on us haven’t left a drop of rain under the Lanai. The grill is in place and the ice box only needs ice to become functional, but it has already become our go-to place for meals. Even now as the temperatures continue to climb. Whether it’s a steak grilled to perfection, a tossed salad for color and a good nutritional balance (to the steak) and a baked potato with all the goodies on the side, evenings in Florida are now a time to look forward to – if you are passing by, let us know as there’s always room to spare on “the barbie.”

As for the outlook from our Lanai, we are still a respectable distance from our pool and spa which feature heavily in our nightly retreat. But beyond the “bird cage” surrounding the pool, spa and lanai, there is a sizable pond (more like a small lake), there is a nature reserve. Together the pond and reserve are proving attractive to the local fauna. Each night we are blessed to be listening to the local frog orchestra whose many-decibel croaks have now worked their way into the fabric of our evenings, even as they do offer up a breakfast to the local bird life given that there are so many of them and yes plenty of birds ready to feast.

Work has now commenced on the home right next to us. It is one of the last to be constructed at our end of the street. It will be interesting to see the progress when we return at the end of this week, but based on what we have seen to date, the slab will have been poured, the framing commenced and, in all likelihood, the roof joists mounted. It moves very fast around these parts and it continues to shock us just how rapidly development occurs, such that each evening trek in our golf cart reveals something new happening in the neighborhood.

New chapters are always filled with their own twists and turns. The plot may be constant, as Margo and I continue to fine-tune our life’s direction, but there’s always important adjustments being made at every turn. Overall, this journey we have been on for more than twenty-five years has been a good one where the number of chapters we have endured is still in single figures. We have lived through changes of addresses and the passing of loved ones. We were blessed with three grandchildren and we have watched the scenery pass by on so many road trips we have taken. Likewise, we have seen the passage of cars coming in and out of our garages through the years with only a few leaving us remorseful at their departure.

Living in Florida is unexpected. Let’s be brutally honest. We openly talked, while we were living in Windsor, Colorado, of having this dream of building one more house, but nothing prepared us for the move to the Florida panhandle. It was only following a drive up and down Florida that left us with time to explore (two major business events we planned to attend were called off while we were on the road), and driving into LMWS and seeing the facilities being built, proved to be a deciding factor. Not planned, but now undeniably the right place to be for us both at this time in our lives. I don’t even have to mow the lawns or shovel the snow!

The most recent evenings right up until the time we left for Colorado, were spectacular. Was it the fall-out from massive columns of Sahara Sands that apparently have drifted this far across the Atlantic? Whatever the cause, evenings with “fire in the sky” proved awe-inspiring. Even from a distance they conjured up stories of fire-breathing dragons facing off in unseen sky battles. Or perhaps something from a Star Wars script. Then again, as we were leaving, storms came to town.

Inundated by rain deluges that continued as we drove out of Florida that stayed with us through Alabama and into Tennessee, it made driving more of an adventure. Fortunately, there was so much water that there were few greasy sections and the Beast handled the conditions as if they didn’t exist. The SUV was packed to the gunnels, so as to speak, as we moved stuff back to Colorado. Yes, after moving everything into the garage and checking out a few items, we soon realized that what worked in the mountains of Colorado weren’t in tune with the beaches of Florida. 

But this is all in the past. We made it safely to Colorado, cleaned out all the unwanted stuff, and are now just a few days away from the return trip. Maps were pulled out to check what route we may want to explore on this occasion. Should we venture onto the backroads? Should we take a little longer and swing by Texas? With so much on our plate and with yet another business event looming in Houston, we put the maps away and stuck to the tried-and-true route through Missouri and Tennessee. We are still an adventurous couple but for now, getting home, safely, remains the priority.

After more than a year living in our Colorado condo, we took the final steps to sorting out what went where and whose stuff belonged in which room and were pleased with the result. We still have pictures to hang in the condo (as we have to do in Florida), but the condo has been transformed into a much more enjoyable retreat. The flow now is working for both of us. Sipping an early evening cocktail, with the maps still unfolded on the table and with a view of the beast through the blinds, that return trip become more meaningful – only days away!  

Tonight, our last here in the condo, there will be a gathering with our kids and grandkids, over fine Indian food. Off we go tomorrow, only to await their visit for the Thanksgiving Holiday! Yes, a gathering with just a hint of sadness and yet, knowing the grandkids will continue to grow to become, well, teenagers! Now that will be an interesting chapter to watch. 

Having the newly-acquired beast in Colorado meant we were able to jump in and out of two completely different British vehicles. The Land Rover and the Jaguar, pictured here in the wilds of Longmont, Colorado, is not a common sight and yet, similarities are hard to ignore. Both vehicles are powered by the same Jaguar DOHC Supercharged V8 (575 hp in Jaguar, 500 hp in Land Rover) and deliver power through the same ZF 8-speed gearboxes, programmed a little differently, of course.

Through all those years together, Margo and I are still both shocked that we have reached this particular chapter in our lives. Gone are the BMW’s and Maserati’s. So, too are the Nissan GT-Rs and Dodge Vipers. All gone! We still have one Corvette, garaged back in Florida, but to have two British cars? Unbelievable! Not sure how that happened. But they are vehicles we have become fond of and contrary to the press they receive, having now owned and leased five vehicles without nary a problem, it’s safe to say, our trust in their reliability has climbed immensely. 

Taking the last walk around the Colorado condo, with the temperatures climbing well past one hundred Fahrenheit (38 C), the calendar was telling us we were about to enter hot August nights. So much for the calendar. Firstly, it was the sight of flights of Canadian Geese soaring into the evening sky that suggested change was on the way. But this early? Surely not. And then I walked back to the garages only to find the wind whipping up fallen leaves. Yes, it is July, but already we are witnessing leaves changing color.

Colorful Colorado is the marketing slogan for this state. And, in season, there is much to admire. But with the coming of fall in July, well, I think it is time to head to the gulf. Pack the car, we are out of here. And so, the chapters keep on coming. Slowly. But it is a reminder to us both that further trips around the sun maybe be winding down. Having written that (and wondering whether this makes it past my editor), all I can add now is that for Margo and me, those twenty-five years together? Well, it’s only a beginning! This book may be approaching the end, but still there is plenty of empty pages yet to be filled!