Maggie and I are preparing to sell everything that’s attached to the ground and fly the coup.After 33 years of marriage and twenty years in Austin, we need to make a change. Otherwise, we’re afraid we’ll stagnate, which is a thing we both dread. Not that Austin is conducive to stagnation. There’s plenty going on here to keep us interested for a long time. It’s more like a desire to see the world. We want to go places and hang out for a while, getting a flavor for what it’s like to live in a totally different environment. We want to do all that now while we still can.

Right now we’re in the middle of packing up for the move. The movers don’t come until Dec. 1, but neither one of us is the type to wait until the last minute and then do it in a panic. At least, I’m not any more. It’s no fun unpacking when you’ve thrown a bunch of stuff into a box that doesn’t belong together, then tape the box up and mark it “misc.” (Speaking from experience.)

Yesterday a nice young couple came and bought all of our bedroom furniture: bed, bedside table, TV armoire that we were using as a linen closet, credenza, book case. All of it nice enough, but the bed and armoire were too big, the book case too small, the bedside table too cheap and the credenza had become a junk collector. (That’s the only thing that I’ll miss, just because I like saying “credenza.”) Nathan and Anna were getting rid of their college furniture, buying their first real house and they were happy to take it away. They were so cute it would have been worth just giving them the stuff just to hang around them, but instead we sold it for pennies on the dollar, and we’re all happy. Maggie and I are sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Feeling very Zen until we get up in the morning and realize that our knees aren’t happy bending like that any more. It’s only for a couple of weeks then we hop in the car and start the first leg of the journey.

The house is in good shape except the sprayer fell off the dishwasher and the sink sprung a leak over the weekend. It could have waited a couple of weeks, but no. The plumber comes tomorrow, right after the appraiser. (Wait – shouldn’t that have already happened?) We’re apprehensive that our buyer can swing the loan, but hopeful it will be OK. Plumbing we can fix, this other thing is out of our control.