Life Tends To Unfold Rather Quickly

Life tends to unfold rather quickly.  My step-father (at 77) may be going in for a hip replacement in the near future. The Doctor will be doing the assessment and, if the determination is “go”, the scheduling sometime next week.  That means I will be relocating to South Dakota for an indefinite period while he recovers.  It could be short, it could be long, it could be very long.  There are a lot of things up for decision.

So, in the last several days, I’ve been surveying my apartment with an inventory eye, trying to figure what I am going to take and what I am not going to take.  Fortunately, over the last couple of years, I’ve been simplifying.  I have stuff in my apartment, but the vast majority of it is simply that…stuff. In all truth, I can get most of my valued possessions into two or three suitcases and a couple of boxes. I could get my stuff that actually have monetary value into a single box.

There are things I would like to take, but very few things that I have to take.  Actually, with the exception of a few keepsakes, most of it I could simply walk away from.  I am working on a “must take” list over the next couple of days, and the remainder of the stuff will be divided between donate and trash.  One of the areas I am wrestling back and forth with is what to do with my apartment.  I can keep it of course, but I am not sure if that makes any financial sense.  There is a cost associated with the apartment and with the open ended nature of the relocation, it may be that the cost rapidly becomes prohibitive.  That is an area I need to work on in terms of planning.

If the relocation is short (two or three months) it makes sense to keep the apartment.  If the relocation is long, it doesn’t make any sense to keep the apartment.  If I accept that the relocation is long term, then I will make one set of decisions, which will have one set of financial repercussions.  If I approach it as short term, then that is another set of decisions.  If I approach it as indefinite (which is the most likely scenario), then that is another set of decisions.

I look at my “life” here in California and though there are many things that I love, most of them are transitory enjoyments at best. Oddly enough, the two most important things to me are both things in which physical location is a lesser concern - my job and T.R.. I would definitely miss my California friends, but that is transitory as well. As we’ve aged people have changed and they are no longer as socially outgoing as they once were and, with few exceptions, most of the social engagements I drive.  The others are content to stay at home, watch TV or play video games.  (LOL - that is the curse of getting older for our generation.)

What is within me is, of course, compact and transportable.  Though I intend to try and switch to a virtual telecommuting relationship with my job, even that is, frankly, portable.  I realize that I could be laid off at any moment based on the whim of a re-organization.  Such are the fortunes of unemployment.  So, I am going to spend some time this weekend building my walk-away list and starting the process of having two key discussions in preparation - the discussion about going virtual at my job and the discussion about breaking my lease at the apartment complex.  Quite frankly I am not thrilled about doing either one, but life changes and we roll with it.