While visiting with my mom-in-law this week in Tazewell, Virginia, Ray managed to settle some last minute paperwork with Hilldrup International Movers. I am still amazed at what can be done from anywhere as long as there is a computer, internet connection, and in this case, a scanner. There have been a few things, okay more than a few but I can't remember many of them now, that Ray and I contemplated before our move to Panama. First really big thing was renting a house long term versus buying one eventually, and another was deciding whether or not we would continuously load our things back to Panama little by little in four to six suitcases weighing fifty to seventy pounds depending on what section of the plane we would be settling ourselves into each trip. While in Panama, I contacted several overseas moving companies with the names being given to me by a friend we had met at the gym. He had several companies he had employed in the past, but I found one company to be more responsive than the rest. This is the company we chose using Hilldrup International on the US side.
Our appointment was scheduled in October for a surveyor to come to our house last Monday. He was going to survey our goods and perform a "pre-move survey". He walked the house with us looking at our things and establishing a weight of those things. We opened up Rubbermaid totes to show him our valuable cargo that we ourselves haven't seen in four months. Photo albums, frames (these I need to consolidate once more), some Panamanian dolls from my dad, then there's the butter churner and ox cart, a vacuum (yes, they have these in Panama, but we don't want to just give this away if we can ship it), kitchen items (dishes, glasses--wedding items), jewelry box, and who knows what else. Two days later, we had an estimate that was in our accepted range of what we expected it would cost for approximately six hundred pounds, and a date was selected for the movers to come to the house to pack, load and carry away our "stuff". The cost will be adjusted if the weight is less or more when the packing is complete. Lucky for me, the following day I went off to a huge event held at the Richmond Raceway Complex called Bizarre Bazaar. This marketplace has been a Virginia tradition for thirty-nine years but unfortunately (or fortunately for my wallet), I have only been to the event twice browsing and shopping at over three hundred vendors. The vendors sell everything seasonal and decorative for the holidays to clothing, crafts, art, toys, food, furniture, jewelry and so much more! First, Ray and I enjoyed dinner with our wonderful friends that we met on a cruise vacation thirteen years ago, and then I had a lovely sleepover. Ray knew better than to be a part of the shopping extravaganza! While I was exhaustingly busy browsing and spending, Ray was equally busy filling out the moving survey, contacting the bank, confirming the moving day, and finalizing the insurance paperwork. I have to give a shout out to him, because he is really good at organizing our papers and just taking care of all the paperwork. Like I have said before, I am the researcher usually, and he enacts the plan. This is why today, in the comfort of his "Momma Cora's" living room, he was scanning all completed and "verified to be correct" paperwork to the Panama City office. It will take up to six weeks to ship our things door to door. And then it will be complete. Another task we hope to have accomplished pretty much as easily and organized as all the other tasks we have managed to finish in the four months we have lived in Panama. But for now, we are visiting relatives in Tazewell (Southwestern VA) relaxing like most retirement days.
While at home in Virginia, the days are flying by first with Thanksgiving Eve spent with my sister and family prepping for seventeen family members to enjoy the big feast. My sister, her boyfriend, Ray and I hung out in the kitchen putting together many of those side dishes that tend to become laborous at the last minute. We enjoyed our victory eating waffles at the Waffle House and grabbing a drink (had to enjoy happy hour somewhere!) at a nearby bar and restaurant catching up with each other all the while focused on the next days events. Early Thanksgiving morning our daughter came to the house ready to help in the kitchen and to also check in on the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (my favorite always being The Rockettes and then Santa). With the Thanksgiving dinner along with those delicious desserts being a huge success, Ray and I made our way back to the lake house with our bellies full knowing we still had so much more to look forward to in the coming weeks.
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| Prepping for Thanksgiving dinner |
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| Thanksgiving Eve mess |
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| Wonderful holiday! |
The next few days after Thanksgiving we spent catching up and dining with former co-workers along with Ray's dad and his wife. We also had to catch up with our financial planner. That was a lovely morning spent in rush hour traffic (there was rain and sleet to be blamed along with a car accident or two thrown in the mix). We had seven minutes to spare and wisely had allowed three hours for the ninety mile trip. But it was a successful meeting still assuring us that we could continue our retirement in Panama. Whew! While in Northern Virginia (usually ninety minutes from the house, not three hours), we enjoyed the afternoon again catching up with another very dear friend of ours who Ray had the great fortune of working alongside with back in his grocery store days. Happily, her husband was also around for the first hour of our chatting, so we could fill him in on life in Panama. That night was spent with our daughter, her boyfriend, our lake house roommates/best friends of thirty plus years along with siblings and other friends of the friends (!) enjoying dinner and a competitive game of trivia. Our team "The Leftovers" placed third. I knew all of two answers. This is why I prefer "Wheel of Fortune" over "Jeopardy". My daughter took me to her apartment where we had a sleepover, and the next day she put me to work in her classroom. I spent nine hours with her trying to accomplish all the things on her list of "things to do but haven't had time to do" such as filing and sorting papers, putting together microscopes, organizing books for the library, and, I think, helping ease her load if only for just that one day. We had dinner with Ray (who also helped with the microscopes), and there was another day of "vacation".
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| Seven am ready to start a fifth grade kind of day! |
More friends to see and this was accomplished first with our lake house roommates spending the weekend at the lake house (so we could see them for longer than a quick meal or game of trivia), and also enjoying the 69th Annual Manassas Christmas Parade at my high school friends home. Her father is still overjoyed that we made our way to Panama, and we were able to catch him up on our antics. The best part is that the rain held off until the last thirty minutes and with a temperature hovering around fifty degrees, we could handle standing outside waiting for Santa.
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| A Chiropractor's office rendition of a spine in the parade. |
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| Our bounty of goodies on the dining room table ready for us to enjoy while watching the parade. |
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| A shoe with a slide down the center. |
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| The big moment! Santa! |
We continued our annual tradition of watching "Its a Wonderful Life" with our daughter and lake house roommates that night, and here we are making our way to hump day in Tazewell.
Now with this time in Tazewell coming to an end and Christmas around the corner, my mind is wandering to shopping, baking and celebrating everyday still with my family and friends. It's snowing outside which makes me feel much better than just seeing clouds and misting rain.
The calendar is almost full these next three weeks, and once the holidays are tucked behind us, we have busied ourselves planning future trips home here to Virginia along with our daughter visiting us in Panama as well as several other vacations and trips for the first half of next year. What Ray and I have figured out and shared with others that are confused as to what we are doing and why we are doing it (retiring and living full time in Panama, this is) is that while Panama is going to be where we settle permanently, when we are here in Virginia, we aren't "back in the States", we are back home.
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| There are 28 stockings hung by the chimney with care (wink, wink) |
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