Moving To Palm Springs, CA

If anyone ever tells you that moving is a piece of cake ... don't you believe it. While I was concerned about moving from the assisted living home to a rental condo in Palm Springs, I was NOT prepared for what I would pick up at my former home. I mean ... where did ALL those boxes come from and what was in them?

What the movers left in the living room!

The movers were late arriving at 12:30 pm while I was ready and antsy. They had my meager belongings loaded in under an hour despite having to go through an elevator, down a long driveway out of the building to the street. We met at my former residence and what a surprise I had in store for me. It took them about two hours to load all the boxes, bags of clothing and whatever else I was able to load up from my old office. Now I know where things I wanted had gone. Despite traffic and the distance to Palm Springs I arrived first at 6:00 pm and they arrived a bit later.

Ironically they had all of the furniture unloaded and left by 7:30 back to the San Fernando Valley. Looking at all this I knew deep in my heart that I had days and days, if not weeks of work ahead of me. After a few boxes had been opened, I determined they would go where they belonged. Then and only then would I try to sort, put away or give away. 

Progress on day 2!

In living we design a kind of life force around us that determines what we like, who we like and what we will do. As we get older circumstances may change some if not all the perimeters but the one constant is that we accumulate things. Some might call it junk or crap but we definitely are accumulators. What's worse, as I discovered, is that we are reluctant to get rid of anything ... anything at all! That's what the folks at Public Storage and such are counting on. Once we possess, we just can't seem to give it away!

As bad as day one was, there was progress by day 2. I decided to work along the wall and by the end of the day pretty much had it cleared to the front windows. I discovered though that once a box was opened it needed to be put in the room where it would eventually go. Otherwise you get so bogged down in each box, it would take months! And I mean MONTHS! Many of these things I hadn't seen in years. I was surprised that I still even had them. Other items were new but I didn't realize just how many there were! 

Sunrise on the San Jacinto Mountinas

I wanted my living room back so I could watch the sunrise each and every morning as I drank my morning coffee. I mean with a view like this what's not to like? I couldn't have designed it better myself. I discovered this added treasure when delivering some of my belongings out here. I knew that I would never be able to pack many of my things just in my pickup so sitting on a dining room chair with a cup of coffee in hand, probably on my first morning, I looked out the window and was stunned by the view. The San Jacinto mountains run north-south directly perpendicular to my west facing living room.  

Part of the excitement of day 2 was the early morning earthquake! Not all that far away in Banning it was a clear glorious morning when suddenly my dog jumped up and started looking around. Then the shaking started; not all that much, a 4.9 on the Richter scale, but enough to let you know you are very close to the San Andreas fault.

The studio

There was plenty enough to do here than worry about earthquakes. Nothing fell which was a miracle in itself when considering how unstable some of the boxes were stacked. They were stacked everywhere including the smaller of the two bedrooms in the condo. I had always considered that to be my new studio. The work table would fit along with my two metal shelves and maybe even allow the blow up bed should anyone want to visit and stay here. However that dream soon evaporated as the boxes increased and room disappeared with the addition of more and then more boxes. I had all this? Really?  The facts don't lie as more boxes were opened and taken to their temporary home. I mean it was bad enough how many tubs there were of finished items ... these however, were waiting embellishment!!!

The end of day 3

I can see that I have my work cut out for me ... but not right away. I needed to get my living  room back so the work continued.

While it did try to rain Wednesday it came in earnest Thursday. Normally I would have stayed snug as a bug except for one problem, my dog. She was NOT to be ignored and walks were required rain or not. So, several times we ventured forth in often pouring rain. Well, it was refreshing and she seemed content. I think she does it so she'll get rubbed down. She loves getting rubbed with a towel all over.

As you can see by day 3 here in Palm Springs I was beginning to see most of my living room. It is a lot of work and I am amazed that my back could take all this. Well, those two little white pills from Tylenol helped too!

New workstation with sleeping dog!

I had a doctors appointment Friday in Alhambra so work on the condo pretty much came to a stop. 

However, it resumed Saturday as neighbors helped assemble a new computer workstation I had never gotten around to putting together. when purchased a few years ago. I am so happy that I didn't try it alone too! What a job. It took us just about all day to get it together and learn all over again what it meant when it said left and right. We thought it was one way and then learned they meant how you would look at it from the front. The only problem was a dowel went through the top of hutch but unless you are about six foot five or so you will never see it. The other problem was that I probably should have hutch on the opposite side as my iMac or the desk lamp are two tall for the opening. Now my 24" iMac and I are definitely close and personal. Not sure just what I will do to change this ... if anything. There are too many other things to worry about ... like getting a printer to work. Ironically the cheapie Canon I had finally did hook up on wi-fi while the larger Canon is telling me to abort an printing job that I cannot find or appears to have been happening. At least one is hooked up and has an Internet connection so that will do for now! Almost here a week and at least there is some semblance of normalcy!

Thank you for reading my blog. Our lives are designed ... either by ourselves or others ... I hope you find interesting observations here to read. Please check out earlier blogs as I explore the designs we have for living!