The Checker

Our first contingent of guests from Japan have departed for their next stops – Yoshiko and her three girls are now in Chattanooga getting acquainted first-hand with their American sisters and brother. Her three other traveling companions are in Atlanta tonight ready to return to Japan on an early flight in the morning. After a midnight arrival here in the mountains last Saturday night, everyone got up bright and early to discover Highlands- including waterfalls, feeding the ducks, canoeing, Sweetreats for ice cream and The Toy Store, of course! The highlight of their second day with us was the complete failure of our community water system – read “no water”. That’s right – 9 of us with no water for drinking, bathing, etc. Yoshiko said, ”Wow, Mom – this is just like Little House on the Prairie!”(her favorite TV show when she lived with us in Arkansas 20 years ago!). Everyone was a really good sport through it all – thank goodness for bottled water and a nearby hotel where we rented a room to use for everyone to shower. The good news is that our new waterline was installed today at a new well and we now have water. That will be welcome news when Yoshiko and her family, including her husband and parents, return here on August 5. Stay tuned – the adventure continues. . . .

This Friday is our “official” last day in Montgomery – our moving sale begins and it is Hoyt’s final day at WSFA. Then we head for the mountains to prepare for the Japanese invasion. Our Japanese exchange student from many years ago is coming for three weeks – along with her entourage of 3 daughters, a friend and her daughter and another friend who will stay next week; then her husband and her parents will follow in another week. What fun!

After they all leave on August 8, I will let you know if there really is such a thing as “retirement”. I am beginning to have my doubts!

We head out this weekend for our final “delivery” of Montgomery items to their new home in Highlands. The SUV is packed to the roof, but we got it all in somehow!

The McLeans came through on their way back from the beach last weekend and we loaded a rental truck with the furniture that they are taking from here – as well as what Hoyt and Kate chose. With John’s great packing skills, everything went in perfectly and in spite of a great deal of rain on the way to Chattanooga, all was unloaded upon arrival.  

In addition to moving in this weekend, we also get to enjoy the company of Kate, Hoyt and Lindsay, Kate’s friend from Connecticut. We look forward to giving Lindsay the official tour, which includes waterfalls, Sweetreats, and the auction on Saturday night, the favorite gathering place of all Highlands visitors!

We will spend next week in Montgomery. The big “Moving Sale” of most of our household goods here will be July 21-22, then we head for Atlanta to pick up our Japanese daughter, Yoshiko and her family for a week in the mountains. We close on our house sale on July 26 and though Hoyt’s official last day at WSFA will be July, we’ll make one more trip back to Montgomery on July 31 to help with the transition. It has been quite the moving adventure!.

It is a good thing that it is cool in the mountains – we are doing lots of lifting, toting, cleaning and rearranging! It is a little more of a challenge that we thought to combine two homes into just one. We will be making just one more trip from Montgomery to Highlands with another full SUV load – so we’d better be able to get it all in!

We have now set up our “home office” – just picture us side-by-side on our lap top computers at the desk! Cozy, yes? We are in the process of getting our Lindal business set up as well. Our goal is to get it really up and running in August – when our first advertising hits the stands of the area magazines. July will be filled with moving in the last of our things and playing host to our Japanese AFS daughter and her family until Aug. 8.

Somehow, the word “retirement” doesn’t seem to be fitting our situation. I will work on coming up with a better word for our new lifestyle!