Are we there yet?

We've been in our new house for 1 week. Although a minor move compared to relocating the household from Michigan to Maine, be not deluded about the effort for even a small household. We rented a 16ft. moving van and did the work ourselves. It took us two days to accomplish the main part of the move. By the end of the second day, we were exhausted! You know how when you get so tired you feel stupid? That was how I felt. Why is it the work of moving is so easily underestimated? It might be the same reason as when we face other difficult situations in life - if we consciously grasped the enormity at the time of decision making, we wouldn't do it.

The pictures are taken at the new place except for the moving van shot. The first photo is a view out the back. The kitchen features a gallery of windows that take in an open field and beyond that, a distant view of the White Mountains. The next pic is the view down our road. It's a quiet, low traffic road that leads down to the Saco River. Cheryl is at work, setting up yet another kitchen. Making a kitchen truly functional in a new house is probably the most challenging job of all. Cheryl has a special gift for kitchen optimization which is being put to great use on our journey.

At any rate, we have most of the boxes unpacked and stuff arranged. We are definitely enjoying the new place. Although it is not perfect, we have relieved the major problems that plagued us at the previous place in Casco. Moving and the numerous tertiary upheavals that go with it is certainly stressful. But we had reached a breaking point in Casco and it was time to go.

One of the things we learned in Casco is size and room arrangement with a teenager in your life is much more critical. In Casco, we were living in about 700 sq. ft. More importantly, there was basically no where for anyone to retreat to. We came to understand that space is one of the keys in maintaining relative harmony when living with a teenager. We now have about 1100 sq. ft. which includes sufficiently isolated spaces for everyone to be in. The rats are no longer going nuts in their too-small cage!

Another aspect of our journey has been communications. In our previous life, we had one computer on a dial-up connection to the Internet. We made extensive use of email on that one computer but that was about it for modern communications. We are also basic cellphone-less, furthering our Luddite-ness.

Fast forward to Maine. When we moved onto the horse farm, we found the owner had high speed Internet, cable TV and Internet telephone. We cut the cable TV cord years ago due to ever-rising cable bills. But there were compelling reasons to give cable a second look. High speed Internet allowed us to have three computers on line at once, made possible Internet commercial-free radio and video viewing. Downloads were a snap and Jayne even found old Star Trek episodes to watch for free. We also found that long distance telephone costs went away with an Internet phone. In Maine that's particularly important since virtually all calls are long distance. Internet phones have the downside of not being as reliable as land lines. But we live near people we can call on in an emergency so that's not too big of a negative. I've also had to learn about setting up and maintaining an Ethernet network and router to make all this happen. Way different than the more simple life in Michigan! But the benefits have definitely been worth it. It's opened a whole new world for all of us. Flexibility and the middle way are at work again in our lives :-)

Tomorrow it's back to Vermont for what I hope will be the last week of the Kendall Farm electric utility project startup. It's been a stressful 3 week startup but the end is in sight.

In answer to this posting's title, no we are not there yet. But we feel that, like a spiral, we are closing in ever-more tightly on the ultimate goal. My personal hope is we make one more move onto the place we are actually going to live. But I'm realistic enough to realize there is no way to know what lies around the next turn. Even this far into the journey.