So, It's Come Down to This...

Here we are in the land of milk and honey, almost homeless. Many thanks to these kind folks (Don and Shelly) who've loaned us the use of their trailer. Otherwise, it'd be out in the cold cruel world - and I do mean cold. It amazes me how quickly we become unused to local weather - I mean, we were only gone 30 days, for cripe's sake!

I made use of my Joby Gorillapod tripod thingy (http://www.joby.com/) to capture myself hard at it updating the blog. It almost seems like one of those circular reference errors I used to get in computer programming classes. If that doesn't make sense, you probably had to have been there... never mind.

Working on the Blog in Don and Shelly's RV Trailer

Dianna is somewhere under the quilt on the right sleeping. She's done amazing well, ignoring me as I putter about at "oh-dark-thirty" every morning. Making coffee and cranking up the computer.

Home for a couple of Days Prior to Departure for Belize

As an aside, I've found another Website that I found to be intriguing. It's about something called "steampunk" - which, in this instance, is basically taking modern stuff, computers, appliances, etc., and modding (or as we used to say in the model railroad field, "bashing") them to look like something else, modding them to look like something out of the Victorian era (See the Wikipedia entry at (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk) for a thorough primer on steampunk and scifi and Neal Stephenson. If you haven't read anything by him, get cracking). Check out the Steampunk Workshop Website at (http://steampunkworkshop.com/). Especially the steampunk LCD, and the steampunk keyboard mod articles. Wow!

Here's another shot of our digs, complete with the old-folks lineup of drug bottles. It's amazing how quickly one moves from being young and pain/carefree to some doddering old fart making sure their collection of pills and salves are readily at hand.

Doing the Final Getting Ready Stuff

Another view of us getting all our stuff organized to travel. I'm afraid our checked baggage this time will be over the weight limit - at least mine will be. I've got it packed with a network router, modem, tools, parts of this and that, clothes, pill bottles, papers, books, computer wiring, power strip, and assorted junk. I do have the good luck kitty from my and Owen's California trip aboard in my carry-on pack, so that's been looked to.

Made Sure All the Electronics Were Packed

Today, I'll take some final shots of the duplex. Poor kitties, still have to live there, it's getting to be pretty bare. I can only imagine what they're thinking. Just wait. Today, they go to the Vet for their shots and certificates and Midas gets a haircut

Our Furniture Goes Bye Bye, Thanks to Craigslist

After packing up all the stuff we are going to take with us to Belize, We needed to get rid several pieces of furniture. Dianna decided to give Craigslist a go. Wow! She posted the items (see photo below), and no lie - within the hour - we had our first phone calls asking about the items.

Photos of All The Stuff We Put On Craig's List

Now, it's day two of Craigslist and most of the furniture has sold. What an amazing thing Craigslist is. I mean, it's just effortless. Check it out at http://www.craigslist.com.

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes

There are now just a few things left to pack - the microwave, the Shower-Massage, finding enough other stuff to fill a partial box, cutting down a wardrobe box to fit our two acoustic guitars, and my printer. That's it!

We're a bit over 2000 pounds now (got to remember to pack the scale too) and we have 84 boxes. We'll probably gain a one or two more boxes before the day is out, but we're essentially done. The heaviest box is 65.5 lbs - containing workshop tools and garden tools, and the lightest is 7.5 lbs - containing a wooden curio stand.

We've gone through four rolls of packaging tape, one of which I got at Office Max (their brand too) and it really sucked. Stuck ok, but it was just really hard to work with - didn't roll easily off the tape gun.

Quality of boxes is something too. We bought most of our boxes from CorrPac, a local wholesale packaging vendor out on Black Lake Boulevard. Their boxes were single wall and were sufficient for the job, although their in-house selection wasn't the greatest. We had to special order several bundles of various sized boxes.

I finally made it over to the Olympia U-Haul center yesterday. I went there to try to find some last minute odd-sized boxes and to upgrade our reservation for Tuesday from a 14' to a 17' van. Let me tell you, U-Haul has a great selection of heavy double-wall boxes in a very wide variety of sizes. Not the cheapest, but their quality for moving is super. They were also extremely busy when I went there - the day before Memorial Day. People were lined up out the door waiting to pick up trucks. I got there, selected the boxes I wanted, then got in line and waited a good 30 minutes to get to the counter. It was amazing. And, the counter staff were working hard too!

I'm going to try to pick up the van tomorrow morning at between 8 and 9 AM. Owen will be over a bit after 9 AM and will be bringing two dollies with him. Not those kind - furniture dollies! I also need to call the City's Parking Nazis and let them know, there will be a "foreign" truck parked in front of our duplex for the day.

Wednesday morning, bright and early, Owen and I will depart for the City of Angles. We should get in early afternoon on Friday and will drop off the stuff Saturday morning, drop off the van at a U-Haul joint down there, take a cab to LAX, and fly back to Seatac on Alaska Airlines. Not sure yet how we'll get back down to Olympia, might just go with the Capital Aeroporter again. I think Dianna and Sandy will be pre-occupied with the garage sale activities here.

Proof in the Pudding - We Really Are Packing

Although it may not look like it, we are close to being done with packing. This is because we aren't taking all that much with us. Virtually none of the furniture is going as you can see from the picture of our living room below.

We Should Have Brought it All With Us

The white fluff-ball in the lower corner is Midas, one of our two cats. They're both going.

Here's a shot of my office, in it's usual tidy state. Believe it or not, it's pretty much all packed up. The computer, modem, router, and printer all go - none of the furniture.

My Office

As proof that there really is packing going on, here's what our basement looks like. We've got about 40 boxes packed up so far.

About Half-Packed

I've even packed up my bike. I scrounged around and found a bike box at Oly Bikes, an employee-owned bike shop in downtown Olympia. They were busier than any bike shop I've been in lately. They were kind enough to sell me a box for $5.00US, complete with all the plastic bits and bobs to protect the bike in transit.

They also advised me to Google for instructions on how to pack the bike. Which I found an excellent series of videos at http://www.expertvillage.com/videos/bike-pack-one.htm. A series of 15 short (one to two minute) videos guide you through the whole process. It's easy.

The Bike Too

More boxes all packed up and ready to be taped up - ready to go.

Boxes and Boxes

Here's the raw materials including Styrofoam peanuts. I debated whether to get the biodegradable peanuts or not, deciding against it since they were water soluble and decompose when wet. I decided that with the humidity down in Belize, that it probably wouldn't be worth the risk to have the peanuts decompose prematurely.

And More Boxes

Other than the Kitchen dishes, pots and pans, and spices to be packed, we're just about done.

Next comes getting the place cleaned up and organized for a garage/moving/furniture sale.

During that time, we'll be renting a Uhaul truck, and taking the boxes down to Roy and Son Shipping in Los Angeles. Owen and I will make a quick road trip out of it and fly back - probably from Long Beach ($79.00US each).

Then we clean up the place, pack ourselves and the kitties up and fly south. We're looking to be back in Belize around June 9, or so.

Getting Packed, Getting Needed Stuff

This is pretty much a grab bag. Just a pile of stuff that we're doing to get ready to ship everything down and get ourselves back to Corozal.

We spent most of the day yesterday packing. I went running around a bit, changing addresses, arranging direct funds transfers, buying needed stuff, an air conditioner belt and shock absorbers for the Isuzu, ordering a camera lens, stuff like that.

We actually made good progress on packing. My office is pretty much in boxes as are Dianna's miniature tools and supplies. Today, I'm cleaning out my closet. Most of it goes to Goodwill. There is just no way that I will ever wear a suit or tuxedo down in Belize.

After that, I think I'll tackle packing my tools. Dianna will probably start boxing up the kitchen implements. After that, there's not much left.

Oh, yes. I'm going to call around today to see if I can get a bicycle box from one of the shops, to pack up my mountain bike. Speaking of which, I know it may sound weird, but I bought fenders for the bike and got them installed on it. I think it looks good. They should work even better too.

I think we'll be able to easily be out of here by June 6. Might even make it earlier - that'd be great if we could.

We still need to check with a travel agent for a more direct way to fly, and to arrange a flight for the kitties.

More later, as I think of it.