Things that go to new homes

I woke up the other night thinking, "What if we're making the biggest mistake of our lives moving back to Britain?"

It's the 3AM brain that's dangerous. At 7AM I was feeling okay, but I'd be lying if I said everything is rosy and shiny here. There have been meltdowns and melancholia, and it feels like we're undergoing death by a thousand very slow cuts.

We've sold one car, and we shipped out our boxes of things we can do without (I hope) for 6 to 10 weeks.

After advertising our couch and matching chair, a young woman couldn't wait to get them for her first apartment. So we're using a patio chair and the rocker that will stay here with my sister.

The TV is now on the floor because we don't have anything left to put it on! It was on this chest that my dad made in the '70s - a friend just bought that from us.

Before that the TV was briefly on a side table after another friend bought the TV stand. Now the side table holds the computer because the computer desk is in the garage for our last garage sale tomorrow.

Next week other friends will be buying all the remaining furniture and the bicycles, the computer will be erased and donated, and we'll clean the house, sign stacks of papers, and relinquish our keys and our home. It makes me very sad because I've really loved living here. I find some consolation in the thought that we leave a legacy behind - sort of like organ donation.

Besides the furniture going to new homes, our everyday dishes went to a young woman who wanted to have a matched set instead of putting up with her boyfriend's odds and ends.

A lovely artist who lives down the road bought a small vase at our last garage sale because she wants to use it in a still life painting.

Some cool contemporaries bought my two Balinese frogs - they'll give them to a friend who is a musician with a frog pond. The frogs may end up in his music studio!

Our old bedroom dresser will hold clothes for two little boys as they grow up - one is only two months old now.

And our house will be loved by two new people who moved here to be near their son. Maybe this will be their last home. I wonder where my last home will be.

After the house sale is complete, we'll take some road trips here before we fly across the pond in mid-June. Until I get a new computer in the UK I'll be depending on my 7-year-old netbook, and my camera card doesn't fit it (so old skool). I think this is a good time to say See ya later, au revoir, arrivederci. I'll share photos from Wales - you know, sheep, hills and strange road signs - as soon as we've settled in our new home!

Val