Ben graduated from the Navy Corpsman A-School yesterday; Izzy and I flew down to see his graduation. I made reservations downtown by the River Walk, so we have spent our free time exploring the area. This morning Izzy and I drove to the Japanese Tea Gardens a few miles north of where we are staying. We were there early, with the only other guests being another group taking pictures.
It is sunny and hot in Texas in July. Ben said he can’t wait to take some leave and fly back to New England with us tomorrow. I can totally understand his feelings. Luckily the paths along the River Walk have lots of shade and usually have a good breeze. But still, the heat take a lot out of you.
It has been nice to get a break from the anxiety of trying to sell the house. It has been stressful with all the house viewings that didn’t turn into an offer, but hopefully that part of things will be over when I get home tomorrow.
Izzy posing in front of some of the art on the San Antonio River WalkEntrance to the Japanese Tea Garden. The entrance was renamed to the “Chinese Tea Garden” during the Second World War to prevent destruction of the garden by anti-Japanese sentiment at the time. Walk to the remains of the cement kiln, Japanese Tea Garden, San AntonioPagoda, Japanese Tea Garden, San Antonio
Last night, Izzy and I drove up to Norwich to watch the fireworks. We had to wait until a line of thunderstorms passed. The ground was wet, but the rain made for a beautiful sunset as we walked through the downtown. It was a needed break from the stress of selling the house and getting ready to move overseas.
The house is as updates as we will get it. The next updates will be for the new owners. The Realtor officially put the house on the market and scheduled two open houses this weekend. Yesterday, Susanna went to a much deserved afternoon at the spa. Izzy, Hoagie and I had to find a place to eat lunch and hang out for a few hours while people walked through the house. We decided to head to Olde Mistick Village. What I didn’t realize was that this weekend was the second annual Strawberry Festival at Olde Mistick Village. The parking lot was packed, but food trucks were there, so finding a place to eat while towing a dog around wasn’t hard. Hoagie didn’t like the heat and spent a while just sleeping under a bush while Izzy spent longer in her favorite store, Holistic of Mystic, than I thought was possible in such a small shop.
Izzy enjoying a large ice cream cone at Olde Mistick Village.
The first half of this week is forecast to be very hot (upper 90s), so we will need to find a cool place to hang out for any house showings that get scheduled.
After nearly 19 years, we are officially moving out of Preston. The house paint has been touched up, the inside and outside of the house is clean, pictures are taken, the floor layout is mapped, and the contract signed with the Realtor. The house officially goes on the market later this week with an open house scheduled next weekend. We still have a lot of stuff to get rid of and several weeks to hopefully have everything wrapped up here. Our next big stop is Sweden! We’ll be hosting an ice-cream farewell gathering in July to say goodbye to everyone.
Susanna and I have been working diligently to touch up on paint and do the final few repairs on the house prior to listing it.
Today I finished the back stairs. The old stairs were in pretty bad shape and looked terrible. I replaced the front stairs last year and decided to match (or somewhat match) the back stairs. The front stair treads are pressure treated lumber with green porch paint. The porch paint looks nice, but it gets worn through on areas that are used frequently (such as the back stairs/porch). I couldn’t find green composite lumber, but did find brown. The brown matches the trim style on the house (green trim with brown highlights), so I used those instead. The brown isn’t a perfect match, but it is reasonably close.
Back porch with treads installed and paint touched up.
I’ve been working on painting the workshop trim. My long term plan had been to replace the siding, but I don’t think that makes sense with us putting the house on the market in the next few weeks.
Repainted trim and door to the workshop. I still hate the siding, but it keeps the place dry.
I’ve been done with work for 12 days. One big change, is I’m a lot more active than I was at work. I don’t wear a fitness tracker, but my phone shows a big increase in my steps. I’m trying to get up first thing in the morning to take Hoagie for a short walk before everyone else gets up; Hoagie is loving having me around and is now getting one to two walks a day.
Monday morning I met up with a friend and enjoyed a nice morning hike through the Shunock River Preserve in North Stonington. We didn’t see any other hikers on the trail and enjoyed the beautiful views. It is early enough in the year that the bugs weren’t bad and cool enough that it was pleasant. It is certainly a trail that I’d like to return to. The hike was just under 3 miles and took a little over an hour to complete. Surprisingly, Hoagie didn’t wind up too muddy.
Hoagie enjoying the boardwalk on the Shunock River Preserve.
It has been quite an adjustment. I’m used to having a schedule every week day and now I have to work to remember what day of the week it is. Not that I’m sitting around. I haven’t really had much time to sit around and relax. We are busy getting our house ready to sell, get everything ready for the move to Sweden, and drive Izzy to and from her rehearsals.
The house is slowly coming together. We have rented a storage unit to store furniture for the kids to take when they get places of their own. We have been making weekly trips to the dump and Goodwill to clean out things we won’t be bringing to Sweden. The first project I need to finish is replacing the back stairs. I was able to get the second set of balusters installed today. If the weather holds tomorrow, I’ll finish the painting and then install the new stair treads on Friday.
Second set of balusters installed. They need a second coat of paint and some other detail work still.
Yesterday I took Hoagie to Middletown to the only veterinarian in the area that will do the paperwork for him to fly to Sweden with us in August. Flying a pet overseas has seemed like a huge hurdle to overcome. However, the vet was very reassuring; she said she does this all the time and it won’t be an issue. I have tickets for him to fly with Izzy and I on the 1st of August. I hope to be able to leave his crate at the airport, but if not, Susanna is planning on meeting us at the airport in Copenhagen when we arrive to help with luggage, the dog, and possibly the crate. Susanna has her tickets to fly to Sweden a week before Izzy and I fly so she should have everything ready for us to arrive.
Izzy and I are planning a road trip around the states this fall. As a family (all 3 plus dog), we will head to Sweden late summer, settle into the apartment we have rented, get a car, and I’m sure a lot more that we haven’t figured out yet. Susanna will be looking to start working, hopefully as a preschool teacher; she needs to work to sponsor my residence permit. Izzy will have to repeat 3rd grade, and I’ll have to be out of Sweden for Susanna to apply for my permit. Our current plans are for Izzy and me to fly back to the US in late August.
We’ll spend a week in Connecticut catching up with friends and getting the mini-van ready for our road trip. Once ready, we will head west towards St. Louis and family. From there, maybe Colorado, California, and back. We’ll have time to plan it as we go and see where we feel like wandering.
I’ll put in a rudimentary DC electrical system for the trip. We’ll need to power a refrigerator/cooler, computers and phones. I’m planning on putting a solar panel on the roof and use a 50Ah lithium battery that I already have on hand. I ordered a 100W solar panel and a 30A PWM charge controller to start early testing of the system. I’ll eventually build a box for the battery and associated connectors.
I hooked up the solar this afternoon and was getting 2-3 amps of charging current even with the overcast weather. The next challenge for the electrical system is to figure out how to run the cables into the mini-van without having to drill a hole in the roof. I have some ideas, but will have to spend some time looking more closely at the van.
This Friday marks the end of a nearly 30-year chapter working for the U.S. Navy, as I make my final commute to Newport and turn in my computer, phone, and badges. With the recent push to reduce the size of the federal workforce, I’ve been given the unexpected opportunity to retire almost five years earlier than I had originally planned.
The past couple of months have been a whirlwind of planning and soul-searching. Susanna and I have a full spring and summer ahead—we’re preparing to sell our home and move to Sweden, where I’ll begin the next chapter in retirement.
This fall, Izzy and I will return to the States while my residence permit is processed, and we’re planning to take a few months for a road trip across the country.
Earlier this year, Susanna and I had grand plans for Izzy’s spring break. Izzy and I were going to fly to Texas to visit Ben; we would spend a few days in San Antonio before the major heat of the summer. Susanna was going to fly to Sweden to visit the newest member of the family, Agnes. Then came late January, new direction from the top, and huge amounts of churn in my job and the country. Any chance of telework disappeared, so any extra days I had to be at home with Izzy would have to come out of vacation time. And finally, came the “fork in the road” email and it started looking like I might get an opportunity to retire early.
So we decided to hold off on any major expenses and trips. I would save up my vacation hours until we figured out what was next. We would start looking at what it would take to sell the house and downsize or move. Instead of a grand adventure, Susanna and Izzy had to plan a spring break at home.
We have been spending a lot of time getting our house ready to sell this summer, and going through the many years of junk we (okay, mostly I) have accumulated. But we still needed to do something fun for school break; at least something more fun than every day at home. We watched the weather forecast and I put in extra hours early in the week.
Yesterday we headed down the coast to NYC. The weather was perfect for a day in the city. It wasn’t so hot that we baked in the sun, and it wasn’t so cold we froze. Light jackets and sweaters were perfect, and easy to pack in my backpack when we armed up.
Izzy wanted to bring her best friend, Evelyn. We picked her up first thing in the morning, stopped and Dunkin for breakfast and drove to New Haven. From New Haven we took the commuter train to Grand Central Station. Evelyn hadn’t been to New York City before, so it was a new adventure for her. Izzy normally did NYC with just her parents, so having a friend along was a new adventure for her.
From Grand Central Station, we walked to Times Square. There we jumped on the subway to Chelsea and the High Line Park. We found a bagel bakery for lunch then walked maybe half of the park. By the time we left the park it was almost too crowded to walk the trail. We exited the park to street level and took an Uber to Magnolia Bakery. We took our afternoon sugar snack to Central Park to find a nice rock outcrop to sit and eat on. Izzy and Evelyn ran around the Heckscher Playground until it was time to walk back to Grand Central Station, with a stop at Midtown Comics.
Susanna bought what must have been the worlds most expensive grapes at Grand Central to hold us until we got back to New Haven and found a place to eat on the way home. We dropped off Evelyn at here house and made it home around bedtime. Both girls gave two-thumbs-up for the day; three-thumbs-up if they had an extra digit.
Theater season is starting. Today Izzy had auditions at Granite Theater in Westerly for Peter Pan Jr. The weather was cool and overcast, but not raining. Not the nicest day to walk around, but the overcast sky made it a good day for photography. I dropped Izzy off at the theater and strolled around Westerly, winding up at the Westerly library 30 minutes before I had to pick up Izzy. It was a nice break from the chaos and uncertainty at work.
Westerly, RIWilcox Park, Westerly RIPawcatuck River
