Farewell to Colorado and Hello World!

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. ~Seneca

It was time to move from Colorado. I had felt it in my bones that it was time to leave for nearly a year. We had originally moved back to Colorado to support my older daughter Erika while she was in college and she had graduated with honors and moved on herself in May 2007. So it was time. Nothing wrong with Colorado; I had just lived there too long.

I had gone to college in Colorado and when I left I had no intention of returning. My daughter’s decision to attend college in Colorado combined with her homesickness had brought me back and I was glad to do that. Now it was time, past time really, to leave. Still I had to make sure that it made sense when I moved and it had taken me nearly a year to do that.

My wife and younger daughter and I have many many possessions and we got the opportunity to review them all in great detail while packing them up. My book collection alone numbers in the many thousands of volumes and they all made the trip with me.

It was interesting as we packed, visited goodwill and simultaneously cleaned to live in an ever smaller portion of our house. In the final days we were eating, sleeping, cooking and running my business out of one room that I lovingly named the “Obitchen”. I think I lived in something similar once where it was called a “Bachelor Apartment” but I like the term “Obitchen” much more. I have included a picture of this multitasking room in this entry.

The weather decided to make the move just a bit more interesting. There was snow much of the time that we were getting things to goodwill and it snowed on and off the entire day we were packing the cars and the trailer. (I needed the trailer because I could not stand to go without my pet 1985 Kawasaki ZN1100 that I have been restoring for three years now. His name is Big Zed and I could not part with him.)

Anyhow, we got moved. My wife and young daughter made it safely to the Philippines where they will be spending the summer. I got to Iowa where I will be taking care of my aging mother and gravely sick sister and exploring the adventures that this part of the world has to offer.

Thanks to everyone in Colorado. I enjoyed my time being back. I will miss my friends there – I intend to stay in touch.

Bye for now…Jack

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ~Anatole France