The Countdown
Our Departure Date is Coming Up Fast
An outside observer could reliably predict that we are about to leave for France by counting the number of shoes that are delivered to our house. Carolyn is usually on the hunt for something specific which follows the pattern:
“I’m looking for a <choose one: shoe/boot/sandal> for the <insert season> that will be comfortable for walking on the cobblestone streets.” This trip she is looking for tall boots for winter (that will be comfortable for walking on cobblestone streets).
I throw no stones in my glass house! The same outside observer could count the number of guitar-related deliveries that come for me. I’m always sure I’ll find the perfect speaker, pedal, set of headphones, or whatever to transform my approach to learning and practice while we are in France.
We have also begun the mad dash to prepare our Austin home for our departure. Just like our apartment in France, there always seems to be a slew of last-minute projects. We have lined up a neighbor (the lovely and indefatigable K.W.!) to keep an eye on our home while we are gone. She has done this for us before and it was more of a mutually beneficial trade; she had our space at her disposal when painters and electricians were working in her house. This time we’ll insist on paying her.
Carolyn has been spearheading the search for medium-term renters for our back unit, a small studio apartment. She found a service that deals with traveling professionals (mainly traveling nurses who get three month gigs. ) That would be perfect, but so far we haven’t found a tenant. I’m going to be working on permit drawings to add a kitchen to the back unit when we return in the spring. That will make the space more viable as a short-term or long-term rental unit.
In the hopes of making the apartment more appealing to renters, we are having a new laundry center iinstalled in the back unit this week. I have been repairing drywall and redoing the electric to get the laundry closet ready for the delivery. The closet was originally set up for laundry (all the plumbing connections and exhaust vents are in place), but I had relocated the 220 volt outlets to the garage to run my larger power tools. Now we are putting them back (the large tools are gone).
Lawn care. It’s surprisingly hard to find good people in Austin. We have recently started with a new guy who has been helping Carolyn’s mom for years. He seems great, he communicates, comes on time, does weeding for an extra charge (he actually pulls the weeds instead of cutting them!). We had been frustrated by the lack of a middle ground in the Austin lawn care world - the choices were $120/month for uneven cuts done with a weed whacker (no cleanup, edging, or weeding) or over $400/month for someone to pamper it like a golf course.
Security: we have decided to install a home security system since we are going to be away for five months this time. We ordered a system from SimpliSafe. A few of our friends have had good experiences with them. It’s a relatively easy system to set up and doesn’t require a long-term contract. We ordered our system over the weekend and expect it to be delivered within 5-7 days. So far, my only complaint is that the $125 professional installation we ordered (work to be done by 3rd party installers) resulted in an e-mailed quote for over $300! I’m not sure what’s going on there (I suspect “the fine print” is what’s going on), but maybe I’ll be installing this system myself. SimpliSafe says it is easy, I will let you know.
My hope is that a year or two from now, we’ll be in stasis with our French and US properties. In my imagination that means we’ll just pack our carry-on, pick up the doggies from the groomer, and head to the airport, locking the doors behind us. One can dream!
Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time),
Roberto & Carolyn
The shoe/guitar thing is exactly the same in our household!
You've so inspired me to get my act together and get over to Montpellier. We are finally here (I flew and my husband motorcycled!) and we are exploring for a possible future retreat for the coming years. Your doggy exploits have been particularly heartwarming as we'd be bringing our mongrel ( perfectly blended in her eyes) terrier with us. Keep up the great wrIting.