Moving day, the frost, a long farewell, office space

I left work yesterday evening and headed directly to Bowie. Mama was already there and had been for several hours helping getting the final packing done; dishes, pots and pans, and the last items in the fridge and freezer. When I got there, I saw a lot of boxes and furniture items still scattered around inside the little house, Outside was pretty much cleaned up. All the items Norman had put out to be sold were gone with very few exceptions. As we visited, I heard the plan to deliver most of the remaining furniture items to a local charity. That will happen early this morning after Mama brings the truck to them to make those drop-offs. By noon, the house will be empty and the trailer and truck carrying Grandma and Grandpa to Florida will be full. By late this afternoon, Texas will be in their rearview mirror. It will be sad to see them go but we are praying everything works out well for them. At the very least, they have the RV set up and ready for them to move right in as soon as they get there. Probably, late tomorrow evening.

I did not stay long in Bowie because I had a lot of things to do at the farm to get ready for the frost that came overnight. I moved all the large pots containing vegetable plants into the garage. We could not have covered them all, but we did try to cover the peach tree and the nectarine tree. We also placed small pots, buckets, and boxes over the plants in the garden that we thought would benefit from doing so. Norman had given me a drape that could be used to cover a trailer when hauling trash to the dump and we placed that over the raised bed. Whether or not it will protect the plants there is questionable, but we gave it a try. All that work will be undone by this afternoon.

We will know later today or tomorrow when the sun is hot enough to show us which of the plants were burnt by the frost. I was up before sunrise and was surprised to see the temperature reading 38° F, but when I looked at the grass in the back yard, I could see a heavy frost. At some point the temperature had been at or below freezing so all our efforts had not been misspent. Whether we accomplished what we wanted – saving the fruit on the trees and keeping the tender plants from being killed by the frost – is still not known for certain, but it looks hopeful.

Mama will again spend her morning with Grandma and Grandpa as they clean out the house and get all their things situated in the truck and trailer for their trek to Florida. It will be a long farewell on Mama’s part. I get the impression that Grandma and Grandpa do not see it that way. Somehow, they feel that they will be as accessible to Mama and Victoria as they have been in the past. Sadly, that will not be the case since any travel to visit with them would cost us a thousand dollars and use up what vacation either Victoria or I had to use for the travel. Norman travels across the United States and talks about it as though it was the easiest thing in the world to do. Such is not the case for us. Hopefully, they make friends quickly and get settled just as quickly so they do not feel any loss at having moved away from the life they have had near us in Texas for the past ten years. Again, we will be praying for them that all this works out to their benefit, but it will be difficult to help them in an emergency or get to them in any hurried way should they need us.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. Through the end of the year. I am scheduled to present two classes per week. Not a bad schedule providing nothing happens to interfere with my availability for those classes, the vast majority of which are online classes. As the office is being renovated this week I am being allowed access on a limited basis to be able to present these classes. Beginning in May I will be set up at a remote location in a house owned by the company that is about five miles from the office. I have not seen the house or the set-up that will be made available to me there, but I am looking froward to it. With the way management is setting up the office space, it is going to be a bit of a mess. No one in the new office arrangement is assigned a space from which to work. All the “desks” are doled out on a first come first serve basis. All will be identical in set up, somewhat like an internet workstation at a motel or library. No individuality allowed. No privacy offered. No personal space claims acknowledged. Only a few limited exceptions.

Because of the class presentation load imposed on myself and Ana, our Instructor Led Training admin, we have been given a space designated for our use in the closet we use to house the records we keep under lock and key at the office. Fortunately, most of the Tuesday, Thursday working from the office  schedule I am required to observe is spent presenting classes from the remote location. I will not need to be in the office very often. I cannot be certain, but I do not think anyone will be jealous of the closet space set apart for me and Ana to claim as our private work area. It will be pretty cramped, but it will be ours.

Mostly Ana’s.