UPDATE: THE COUNT-DOWN HAS BEGUN!

Still no incoming.  My resolve is as strong as cold steel.  I haven't bought a book in a month and it's killing me.  There are so many precious things out there that need me!

Two days ago I finished culling my books.  The last nineteen boxes went to charity.  My surviving preciouses (I sound like Gollum, don't I?) are somewhere between Southern Maryland and the Florida panhandle.  I've kept only a few to hold me over for the next week or so.

We're still not sure where we're going to live.  The plan was to rent a place for a few months while we scoped out the area, but it seems Pensacola doesn't believe in short-term rentals.  We did find a decent apartment complex with only a seven-month rental and decided to go with that.  We sent our application and check to the address of their parent company on the rental form.  Turns out it was a very old form that the complex never updated and the address on the form was no longer valid.  Oops.  We're sorry.  As far as the apartment complex people can tell, the application and check never made it to whomever it was supposed to go.  They are still trying to track it down.  They advised we go to the bank Monday and cancel the check.  It may be too late for that though.  On to Plan B -- stay at a motel for a week or so until we find an apartment.  **sigh**

The new septic system is in and they planted some grass seed.  As far as I can tell their formula is three seeds to every square foot.  The buyer's real estate agent asked if I would water the area for fifteen minutes daily and I agreed because it's no effort at all and because we don't plan to use the back yard during the little time we have left here.  Fifteen minutes daily leaves the yard a mud swamp.  Those seeds are just laying there and not sprouting.  Not my problem according to our contract.

And we are now dog-less.  We re-homed Duncan four days ago to a family with four kids who fell in love with him.  The place is empty without him and I'm missing him.  He was the best dog I've ever had.  I'm glad he's gone to a home where he'll thrive and be loved.  We also have have to shed ourselves of two cats (Ceili will be keeping her cat).  The cats are year-old sisters and very sweet.  I'll  miss them too, but not as much as the dog.

Christina's house will go on the market in a couple of weeks.  To get it ready for sale we have had to do some work on the grounds.  We spent a couple of days clearing brush.  By "we" I mean myself and Christina's two teenagers, with an occasional assist from Ceili.  As I bent down to get some brush I startled a snake.  I saw its brownish tail slither away from me through the dead leaves.  Copperheads do live in the brush there, but I don't think this was one because it scooted away from me.  Copperheads  are usually aggressive and would not normally move away.  A few minutes late a wolf spider scuttled across my shoe.  Hate spiders!  Hate 'em!

Money has been flowing out like water through a sieve.  We haven't been this broke in thirty years.  Oh well, it's only money.

Friday was Ceili's nineteenth birthday.  She spent the day with friends so we didn't have time to celebrate.  Seems like it was only yesterday she was a little scrunched-up baby so happy to be here in the world.  Tempus really fugits.

School started Tuesday for Mark and Erin.  They're going here for two weeks, then starting in Florida.  If Christina's plan work out, they won't miss a single day.

We have to get rid of our remaining furniture, much of which will be used to stage Christina's house.
It looks like we'll be leaing the area this coming Friday or Saturday.  The three of us and Ceili's fat cat (a Maine Coon mix) in our little Kia along with the computer, the television, luggage, a couple of chairs, and various odds and ends.  It will interesting to see how everything fits.  We were going to stop and do the tourist thing at several places along the way but we wisely realized we'd be ujst too tired and stiff to do that justice, it'll be full steam ahead.

We're looking forward to this new adventure.  All the bumps along the way have been minor ones.  Of course we'll be landing there during hurricane season, so that part may not be minor.  Oh, well...

UPDATE:  Christina and Walt will be heading out sometime Saturday afternoon.  Seems they were committed to a craft fair for that morning where they will be selling their homemade soap.  Mark also mentioned that he has a high school cross-country race that morning, so his Mark will run his race, shower (hopefully), then immediately start off to Florida.  A great way to end his Maryland high school career.  I wonder if things will be as busy down south,