In late June, Pat parted ways with his employer of 11 years, Longview Timber (now Weyerhaueser). Just when he was getting settled into an early retirement lifestyle of golf, hiking, gardening and goofing around, he was recruited to come to work for a forestry consulting firm. The work and the people were a perfect fit, the location, Forks, Washington, was a bit of a stretch.
After making a trip up to check out the area, the job still felt like the right thing to do, so we are in the process of establishing a family outpost near the most northwesterly point in the continental United States.
So much for the backstory. When I shuttered my government cubicle on Tuesday morning, it only took me about two hours to pack up Sippy the Prius and the dog named Boo and head for Forks.
It is going to be another month before we will be in a permanent housing situation. The bachelor pad that we found for Pat in the interim is the equivalent of indoor camping except it smells much much worse than a pine scented campground. Even though the walls are freshly painted and the curtains are new, the carpet is saturated with nicotine and pet urine and no amount of shampooing will ever fix it.
There is no five-second rule if you drop food on the floor. If I pick it up, it goes immediately into the trash. I'm afraid that if I don't pick it up immediately, some Little Shop of Horrors plant will emerge from said carpet and gobble it up.
Pat's interim furniture consists of an air bed in the bedroom, a folding table and chairs for the kitchen and two camp chairs and a lamp for the living area. One of the other tenants gave Pat a couch as he was moving in, but .... well after one look and sniff on my first visit, I gave Pat an ultimatum that either the couch or I had to go. Wise choice husband.
This morning, before leaving the "Alamar Palace" I found myself counting my blessings. Most of the other residents live there because it is the only thing they can afford. We are there because there was nothing else available to rent on the week Pat needed to start work and it left more money in our pocket to set up a second household.
The government shutdown will have a short term impact on our budget. But unless something dire happens it won't seriously impact our ability to pay our bills and meet our obligations. It did prompt us to cancel a planned outing over to Victoria, BC. We normally don't think twice about a getaway like this. Two nights in a Victoria motel and the ferry ride from Port Angeles cost more than the monthly rent at the Alamar Palace.
Yup, counting my blessings.
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