Each year I feel the building of excitement as the day of the Kentucky Derby approaches. The Run for the Roses.
Each year I see the beauties waiting to see if they will have fame and glory. I know the work that went into the building of these racers. I know the investment that made it all possible.
You see, I too have lived with a trainer and equestrian. We will go there together someday, and drink our mint juleps with our big hats. Aubrey and I will drink our drinks and scream for our favorite.
I will have to wait for next year but I still think of us being there, together enjoying singing with the crowds and hearing the trumpet announce the leg up and start of the race.
We will have the best time. I am always dreaming......too.
Monday, May 8, 2017
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Downsizing is a Bitch
Downsizing is a bitch.
There, I said it. Personally loved the chaos I lived in, it pronounced that I had a varied and interesting life. It had a way of drawing me into my artistic side when passing my "Studio". Okay,, maybe it just helped me ignore some things that really should have been dealt with, but there is always tomorrow.
When we decided to retire, it caused us both to deal with our hoard of things we might need, would finish later, were saving for the kids for when they had kids. Purchases that were too good a bargain to pass up, we would be saving money if we bought it on sale. I remember yard sales we passed of smarter people who were digging out to put a new car in the garage thinking, "Yeah, it won't last long before your car is in the driveway again." Then I pulled into our driveway with the garage that our car would not fit into because I hadn't had the garage sale of the century yet.
The decision to move internationally to Ecuador for our retirement really put the kai-bash on procrastinating any longer. My husband even help us along by returning the day after our discussion and setting a date at his job to retire! The nerve of some people. This is the man who never made decisions quickly, it seemed that this was one time he could have given some pause to my suggestion. Nope. He said, " three months from now, we are "retired"."
The time line firmly established we had three months to denude the house and pack out with 4 dogs in tow to Quito, Ecuador and begin our quest for happily ever after. Sounds like it should be easy, right? Send out requests for all the paperwork to be received and because it is Ecuador we need something called an Apostile to prove they are originals to be handed over to a foreign government. They are definitely necessary when handing in the paperwork in Ecuador, no Apostile, no retirement visa.
We started inquiring for a veterinarian that can do the international paperwork for transporting the dogs which you are allowed two per person. We missed the bullet on that one, we had 4. The vet of course would not accept any other vets paperwork, so even though we had shots recently they wanted to do them again to make sure nothing went wrong or was questioned. It was a form of blackmail as far as I was concerned, my way or I am not doing it for you blackmail. Believe me, at 300.00 a dog if they had accepted the vaccinations of our regular vet (who unfortunately has never completed a international health certificate), we would have paid half of that. We paid the ransom.
The tickets were the least of our problems, we actually had to change the date one time and the cost went down and we got a refund, how cool was that? We were thrilled that one thing went our way!
Oh,, I digress... the house dig out. I started out advertising all the wonderful stuff in the garage, bedrooms, living rooms, kitchen, baths, boat yard, back yard, on Craigslist. That worked for one week of dealing with people showing up and arguing with me about the prices, they all wanted it for one dollar. This one dollar included a row boat that was in our back yard storage. That was it for craigslist selling.
I went door to door in our neighborhood and posted what was available, explained that nothing would be a dollar but reasonable. We had a huge sale. The third day I took the leftovers out to the curb, advertised on Craigslist again under, "Free Stuff" and it all went. I swear the same people who came for the items when they were for sale were the ones that were there first digging through the pile. The rest of the household items went to people who I knew would use them or needed something. It was the strangest thing that started to happen to both of us as things left. We felt physically lighter like we lost pounds. We were happier seeing how much joy our things brought others.
The best of the best was when I contacted the kids about the things that I had been holding in the garage for years. My youngest took his big G.I. Joe dolls. The other kids told me something that I hold onto this day, they said: "Mom, when we moved out we took what was important to us. The things that you held onto, they were important to you, not us. We would love it if they went to other people who can make some memories with them." Talk about the smart kids I raised, out of the mouth of adults!! (It still killed me to get rid of the 10 cargo carriers of lego. )
This is not to say we are living the life as minimalists here in Cuenca, Ecuador. We have what we need and can buy what we want. How we lived previously was a reflection of our lives in the United States. We both had worked hard to live our lives and support our family. The amount of quality time we had to spend with our children and they had to spend with us was wrapped around consuming. Restaurants to meet and eat for a few hours to get our quality time, events that were not really conducive to connecting on anything but a crowd level or shopping for more things, newer, better things because it made us happy. We were guilty of all of this.
We now have a different perspective on quality time, purchases and what makes us truly happy.
Our kids still cannot understand why we would leave America, they feel we abandoned the family. In actuality they didn't have time for us anyway, school, work, paying debt, dance competitions. No time for us. We are better off here in Ecuador where if they say they would like to visit, we would have the quality time to spend with them while they discover what makes it so wonderfully different from America.
We found our way out of the constant advertising, dinner in a bag, sitting in traffic for two hours twice a day life. We love it, we learned that you can live a good, simple life and have a lot of quality things. We were never truly happy with all those things, that is why we kept buying more, trying to make ourselves happy. We are happy now and with so much less.
It is a good thing to downsize, it was probably the best thing we did for our health and mental well being. It was still a bitch to do and I will never have to do it again.
There, I said it. Personally loved the chaos I lived in, it pronounced that I had a varied and interesting life. It had a way of drawing me into my artistic side when passing my "Studio". Okay,, maybe it just helped me ignore some things that really should have been dealt with, but there is always tomorrow.
When we decided to retire, it caused us both to deal with our hoard of things we might need, would finish later, were saving for the kids for when they had kids. Purchases that were too good a bargain to pass up, we would be saving money if we bought it on sale. I remember yard sales we passed of smarter people who were digging out to put a new car in the garage thinking, "Yeah, it won't last long before your car is in the driveway again." Then I pulled into our driveway with the garage that our car would not fit into because I hadn't had the garage sale of the century yet.
The decision to move internationally to Ecuador for our retirement really put the kai-bash on procrastinating any longer. My husband even help us along by returning the day after our discussion and setting a date at his job to retire! The nerve of some people. This is the man who never made decisions quickly, it seemed that this was one time he could have given some pause to my suggestion. Nope. He said, " three months from now, we are "retired"."
The time line firmly established we had three months to denude the house and pack out with 4 dogs in tow to Quito, Ecuador and begin our quest for happily ever after. Sounds like it should be easy, right? Send out requests for all the paperwork to be received and because it is Ecuador we need something called an Apostile to prove they are originals to be handed over to a foreign government. They are definitely necessary when handing in the paperwork in Ecuador, no Apostile, no retirement visa.
We started inquiring for a veterinarian that can do the international paperwork for transporting the dogs which you are allowed two per person. We missed the bullet on that one, we had 4. The vet of course would not accept any other vets paperwork, so even though we had shots recently they wanted to do them again to make sure nothing went wrong or was questioned. It was a form of blackmail as far as I was concerned, my way or I am not doing it for you blackmail. Believe me, at 300.00 a dog if they had accepted the vaccinations of our regular vet (who unfortunately has never completed a international health certificate), we would have paid half of that. We paid the ransom.
The tickets were the least of our problems, we actually had to change the date one time and the cost went down and we got a refund, how cool was that? We were thrilled that one thing went our way!
Oh,, I digress... the house dig out. I started out advertising all the wonderful stuff in the garage, bedrooms, living rooms, kitchen, baths, boat yard, back yard, on Craigslist. That worked for one week of dealing with people showing up and arguing with me about the prices, they all wanted it for one dollar. This one dollar included a row boat that was in our back yard storage. That was it for craigslist selling.
I went door to door in our neighborhood and posted what was available, explained that nothing would be a dollar but reasonable. We had a huge sale. The third day I took the leftovers out to the curb, advertised on Craigslist again under, "Free Stuff" and it all went. I swear the same people who came for the items when they were for sale were the ones that were there first digging through the pile. The rest of the household items went to people who I knew would use them or needed something. It was the strangest thing that started to happen to both of us as things left. We felt physically lighter like we lost pounds. We were happier seeing how much joy our things brought others.
The best of the best was when I contacted the kids about the things that I had been holding in the garage for years. My youngest took his big G.I. Joe dolls. The other kids told me something that I hold onto this day, they said: "Mom, when we moved out we took what was important to us. The things that you held onto, they were important to you, not us. We would love it if they went to other people who can make some memories with them." Talk about the smart kids I raised, out of the mouth of adults!! (It still killed me to get rid of the 10 cargo carriers of lego. )
This is not to say we are living the life as minimalists here in Cuenca, Ecuador. We have what we need and can buy what we want. How we lived previously was a reflection of our lives in the United States. We both had worked hard to live our lives and support our family. The amount of quality time we had to spend with our children and they had to spend with us was wrapped around consuming. Restaurants to meet and eat for a few hours to get our quality time, events that were not really conducive to connecting on anything but a crowd level or shopping for more things, newer, better things because it made us happy. We were guilty of all of this.
We now have a different perspective on quality time, purchases and what makes us truly happy.
Our kids still cannot understand why we would leave America, they feel we abandoned the family. In actuality they didn't have time for us anyway, school, work, paying debt, dance competitions. No time for us. We are better off here in Ecuador where if they say they would like to visit, we would have the quality time to spend with them while they discover what makes it so wonderfully different from America.
We found our way out of the constant advertising, dinner in a bag, sitting in traffic for two hours twice a day life. We love it, we learned that you can live a good, simple life and have a lot of quality things. We were never truly happy with all those things, that is why we kept buying more, trying to make ourselves happy. We are happy now and with so much less.
It is a good thing to downsize, it was probably the best thing we did for our health and mental well being. It was still a bitch to do and I will never have to do it again.
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