Beginning of the realization of our dream

The Captain found 2 boxes outside our front door on his way out. "What's this?" he asked. I helped him bring them into the house. The small box he held in his hand was surprisingly heavy. "It's cutlery for North Carolina," I replied. The tape on the big box was partly opened. Inside were packages and boxes containing a bath sheet, 2 tubmats, a set of 3 purple plastic mixing bowls, a toaster, two sets of purple towels, and an oval braided rug.

Such excitement! If we are buying furnishings, it must really be happening. Time to start packing - my sewing machine and fabric, with my Nanny's birds-eye maple dressing table, which I have long used as a sewing spot, will also go. Cold weather clothes will begin to live in Asheville, too. All those mugs that crowd the cupboard, threatening to fall to the ceramic tile floor and break, can be divided between our northern and southern homes.

We still need 2 beds, a futon for the living room, 2 televisions - one for the living room and a small one for the guest bedroom, a DVD player, a dining table and chairs, some end tables, and a dresser for the master bedroom. This is fun, planning and dreaming.

Sometimes it all seems too good to be true! As a firm believer in the dangers of hubris, I occasionally worry that my joy and my pride will lead to my downfall. Put into print, that sounds silly and superstitious, and probably is, in truth. So I vow not to be negative about this. It IS a dream come true, but sometimes they can! How blessed I feel!

WOW!

We are getting the largest tax refund ever this year, mostly because of the Prius, our

sweet little hybrid car, that came with a $3100 tax CREDIT, and incidentally, gets 50 mpg! We are excited to be able to settle more comfortably into the role of homeowners of TWO homes, i.e., payers of TWO mortgages, TWO homeowners insurance premiums, TWO utility bills, etc. You get the picture.

I'm still on cloud NINE thinking that I can escape the Florida summer heat, which gave us a slight preview with a temperature of 88 yesterday.

Going to Asheville to Find a 2nd Home

Pray for me! Even if you are not a great believer in prayer! I need all the spiritual, emotional, universal support I can get! Tomorrow morning I journey to Charleston to pick up my Little Mother, and then together, we go to the Asheville area to look for a place for me to escape to when the FL weather threatens to undo me! This is really important to my life.

The longer I live in FL the more I dread June to November, or Tropical Storm/Hurricane Season. It's like NOTHING I ever knew in the Northeast! I fear the storms, and the devastation that accompanies them! My head knows how irrational this is, but I am consumed with a visceral dread of the storms.

Not only do I need mountains for my soul, but I need respite from this dread!

And how I miss the hiking, being in a natural world that feels like home to me. Forget the notion that all the natural world is home! I need my woods! I'm so torn by this issue.

Whatever power there is that can divine and untangle our souls, I am in need of for this. For years, I have espoused the Lakota saying, "Mitakuyasin" - translated as "we are all related: or "all my relations". But the FL natural world seems forbidding and alien to me. I need my "Piney Wood Hills".

I just want a small place near to the mountains that will allow me to find hiking trails and natural woodland spots where I feel at home. No matter whether that even seems rational! It's my fondest wish and prayer!