So, I always said I would drive away from the old house for the final time and have this playing as I watched it all disappear:
So, that's what I did :)
It was terrifying to let go of everything we'd had for the past 20+ years, but it was also exhilarating. Just knowing we were getting a new start in an entirely new place with NO ONE holding us back anymore - best feeling ever.
Yes, it's an adjustment.
Yes, it's hot as FUCK here.
Yes, I feel like I'm out of my element at the moment.
However, I also feel like I am home. Way more home than I ever felt where I grew up.
I'm not going to reminisce on childhood though. I'm glad that part is over and done with. It was what it was, nothing can change that, and I lived to tell the tale (regardless of how many times I thought I wouldn't or couldn't).
We've been here nearly two months, and there is still a lot that I need to do:
- My office (clean, set up new litterbox for Bean (a self-cleaning monster), lay down new rug, put up new wallpaper (only a small bit), tear down old set up and then set up new desk, and finish organizing the closet situation.
- Cancel the Ohio gym membership
- Get new health insurance
- Make sure all things Ohio are done and over (tax wise, mostly, I think)
- Oh, and do the 2024 taxes :D
There is some cosmetic stuff we have left to do on the new house, but other than that, it is precisely perfect for us. I'm not sure how we did it, but we have landed in one of the quietest, and safest neighborhoods, less than 15 minutes from driving up two mountain ranges, and maybe 20+ minutes from the Tucson Mountains.
I don't believe country living is as quiet and peaceful as we've all been marketed to believe, at least not in Northwest Ohio. There was just as much, if not more, noise there as there is here. Bonus, we no longer have the dust and debris from farming activities, nor the crop dusting who knows what directly over our house, and we don't have to smell the pig farm anymore.
Of course, it's not nirvana here. It's a city with over one million people. Where local communities could keep their problems mostly swept under rugs in our area of Ohio, here, you get a healthy dose of it anytime you drive around. You see the best and worst our society has to offer, just on a much larger scale here.
It's also kind of trippy living so close to an airbase. I also am very content that we did not select a house closer to said base or the airport. We get to see and hear a lot of their activity, which is cool. All in all, though, it's fairly sporadic, and not constant.
See that tannish strip running across the middle of the shot? That's PART of the base. It pretty much stretches the width of the city, at least from I10 over to Houghton Road. If you look on Google Maps, you can see the sheer size. Amazing.
In late fall, or early winter, we're going to go see the Boneyard, which is trippy even to just drive by ... The sheer amount of "dead" planes sitting there is a sight to behold.
We drove over to where my grandparents used to live, but it's now a gated community, so I couldn't go visit (drive by) their old home or see the palm tree I grew up with :/
We went to the Tucson Mall, a place I went some 30 years ago ... I felt like I remembered one particular area, but other than that, it really is just a mall.
So far, my favorite excursion was visiting the San Xavier Mission, southwest of the city:
I have the best memories from being here with my grandparents. It's a place I can't accurately describe. Just makes my heart happy.
Whilst we wait on the cooler months to arrive, I am starting to work on me now. As I explained yesterday, I'm embarking on keto again. Day one went pretty smooth. I am of course easing into it. I have two things that contain sugar, some white-chocolate mocha coffee creamer that I use in the morning coffee, and some whipped cream in a can for my sugar free cherry jello-ish stuff.
I'm considering my options when it comes to movement. We have a few gyms around the area, which I am less than thralled about, but I've seen some Pilates studios, and some Tai Chi (that's probably not the right terminology), and a place that only does classes for all ages, shapes, and sizes, not standard gym-rate fare.
Just trying to get adjusted, figure out a true sleeping schedule, and the like. I know I want to get out and do stuff and meet people, so now it's just decided which format would be best.
There is always walking, but the fraidy-cat in me can't decide what time of the morning would be safe from javelina or coyote encounters. I know they're around. I have seen them once, and heard them other times, and I see reports of the coyotes on neighboring streets. I just don't want to be alone and encounter them, or someone who is randomly walking around on whatever drugs they do down here.
Not trying to be a snooty batch at all. I saw this video one day. A guy was filming on a street in a big city (East Coast) and all these people were on some drug that truly made them freeze no matter where they were or what position they were in. I thought that wouldn't be here, but we have seen it, and it's just so very sad. Helpless to help those that don't want help, I am at a loss. Also, the homeless, or unhoused, or however the hell you're supposed to correctly label it now, population is strong, and you just don't know who you will run across.
Whilst I am not a shrinking violet or fainting goat, and I do have some 50+ years of pent-up rage inside, I just don't want to find out what would happen in any of those situations. Not yet.
Anywhooooooo, that's what's up at the moment. I haven't decided if I want to recount the events of the past few years or not, but I know I have some things to say and I will be saying them until I run out of writing juice again.
Thanks for stopping by :) I would say "Like and Subscribe," but I'm not a "content creator," so I won't.
Happy Tuesday!
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