If you can believe it, here we geaux again!  Amazing.  Just amazing.  When J and I threw in our hat and came back to Colorado, this very moment right this second felt eternities away.  Standing on the desolate shore of the Other Side of Summer, back in June, feeling disconnected and uncertain and failed and all of those other fun things, even the simple notion that this moment, right now, was in our future was a bit of a small consolation.  As the months flew ever so swiftly by, we now find ourselves on THIS shore, a happy and expectant shore, preparing, once again, to hit the road to Louisiana.

It astonishes me, how the vast ocean of time from THAT side of the shore seems like such a teeny tiny puddle from this one.  I look back at how sad I was, just before we left New Orleans and for quite some time after we came back to CO, and have to laugh, really.  A little.  Coming back wasn’t easy, though.  I remember our first couple of social outings, with our friends that we love so dear, and feeling completely out of place.  Not through any fault of theirs, but because we in and of ourselves just felt so different in our own right.  We’d already said Goodbye.  It made saying Hello, THAT soon, really hard.  Just like we never really went down to Denver to revisit old haunts.  It was already gone from us.  Or, we were gone from it.

Time picked up its pace once we started working, I know that much.  Getting into a new, if temporary, routine allowed us to focus on the present and Do What We Had to Do.  Granted, it also stole away a lot of opportunities to connect with those we knew we had already missed and would soon miss again…we were not present for some big life events, but if things had originally worked out, we would  not have been, anyway.  Not overly consoling, but there it is.  All the same, we were doing what we had to do.  We were struggling inch by inch, ever further toward this moment.

And then BAM we were quitting our jobs and heading to Nebraska for my brother-in-law’s wedding and then BAM we were back and have been preparing the household for the move and now BAM here we are, very nearly at Go Time.

Amazing.

We are actually even hauling arse out of Colorado AHEAD of schedule.  ‘Tis the season, you see.  We just got through a round of snowy weather.  The next one was due to roll in the very weekend that we were going to be driving out.  Oh HELL no.  None of us had any desire to manhandle two 27’ Uhauls, one with a car strapped to the back, plus another vehicle, in any sort of inclement weather.  Snow Driving is actually a phobia for me – that would not have worked out so well.  On top of that, I actually have a job to get to, start date and all, so risking any sort of epic delay due to weather and all of that stuff would be a bad thing.  So, we bumped our departure date up to escape this wasteland in between storms.

Of course, NOW the ubiquitous Weather People are saying that there will not be weather after all.  Figures.  No sweat.  We’re getting the heck out of here anyway.  All four of us plus the dog have been essentially ready to go for a while.  No need to sit around when you can be unraveling pavement behind you.

So, J and I have all of our personal effects packed – our nomadic lifestyle this year made that part pretty easy, as everything else we own is STILL in storage anyway.  The folks are pretty much all packed up.  In the background, Cootie and I have been working on home searches.  Now, J and I spend some time out tomorrow visiting those people that we know we will miss.  Hold them to us before we fade away, again.  They are irreplaceable, I know that much, learned that much this year.  As I said last time, distance ain’t no thang as long as we are all in each other’s hearts.

After social Saturday, we pack up those last little random things.  And then we load Uhauls Monday and Tuesday.  And then Wednesday, we are on the road.  Which means I’ll be off the grid, again.  It might be some time before I’m able to blog again.  In the meantime I’ll shout out or post a pic or two via facebook or twitter, from some randomly located middle-of-nowhere rest stop in the Mad-Maxian terrain of Kansas or somesuch.  When I’m not driving.  I’ve got a Uhaul all to myself, aw yeah!

I’m excited.  Well, of course I am, but I feel better this time out.  Things seem to be working out better, the way that maybe they were supposed to.  That has been my theory this entire summer, really.  Being around to assist the folks during some medical times. Having the opportunity to see our friends again, while also seeing how lives have moved in different directions.  Learning just how quick and adaptable I really am.  When things go how they are supposed to go, opportunities seem to fall into place like a well-played game of Tetris.  That’s how this time feels.  Knowing that I’ve got at least a bookstore job lined up, to start out with, already makes this time different from last time.  Acquiring a good In with an excellent staffing agency brings forth great feelings of hope, too.

There are, of course, still miles to go before we sleep…as it were.  But we’re all on our way.

And now, as I write this, it is very very cold outside.  My thoughts turn to the warm evenings in my immediate future.  Ethereal tendrils of spanish moss wind their way toward my feet, entwine around my ankles, and lure me Home.

Thank you for your lessons, Colorado.  See you, someday.

I will see this again in…8 days.