Wow! Today is the first anniversary of our move north to Grass Valley! Last year, we drove our cars, filled with an odd collection items (plants to spray paint) from Carlsbad, where we'd spent the night at Dad and Jean's. It was cold and rainy around 6pm when we pulled up into the driveway behind Flo's car. She handed us the keys and left us to explore our new house, specifically the heating system. We'd brought a couple of inflatable beds and blankets, which we set up in our bedroom, but the cold concrete slab underneath overcame our insufficient mastery of the heat program. Next morning, our Stuff arrived. The big truck couldn't make it up the driveway, so we rented two smaller trucks to shuttle it all in, 5 trips in all. Two thoughts dominated that day. "Yipes! those guys are strong!", and, "why did we bring all this junk up here?". All my careful packing, and we still couldn't find anything, like our coats, for example.
One year later, we're glad we came. We still miss our friends, but several have come for fun visits. We see our kids and my sister a lot more often. We're enjoying the weather, power blackouts notwithstanding. It's a beautiful and interesting area to explore, and we like the scale of the small towns. We're mostly unpacked. Tom has a lovely office in the loft, and my cool studio is just recently functional, new computer and all. We're gradually making some new friends. And see more than enough opportunities for deeper involvement in the community, now that we're more settled. We have a dentist, doctors, and a good mechanic. Of course, when we were planning this whole scenario, I was pretty sure that, by now, we would have the studio AND the shop up and running; that all the furniture would be in place, and all the rooms would be decorated; and that we'd be harvesting food and cutting flowers for the table. We did place an order for a sofa, recently, and I have bought some seeds.
But, while some of our projects could be moving along just a little more quickly (perhaps, like the lizards, we'll speed up as the weather gets warmer), we're pretty comfortable, I must say. If people are wondering what the heck we've been doing all this time, they're too polite to mention it. But they'd be right. Sometimes we just goof off.
So, looking forward, we're planning to buy kayaks very soon. We've just begun work on the shop, outside. I will get those seeds started this weekend. Tom is keeping an eye out for musical involvement and I'll be working to find my niche in the arts scene this next year. We look forward to more visits from family and friends--here are still some slots left! We're watching (and helping where we can) as Dylan works on building up a furniture design business, and as Rachel decides where to go to school in the fall.
I think we're doing good! Grass Valley is working out, so far. Come up and see what you think (you, who are far too polite to mention you-know-what)!
