Home again, home again jiggity jig!

I've heard that, "home is where the hearth is" and if that adage is correct then we've been homeless since selling #10 Cumberland Street. 

Our last true hearth!

We went "home" for the holidays for first time in our lives and, to be frank, it was a bit surreal; being "home" yet, not having a place to call our own. 


We had an eventful time staying with friends and relatives and everyone's hospitality was indeed top notch! We were; however, constantly reminded that we were indeed not home but, rather, in a locale we called "home" for many many years. 

Delma and her boy, Rich!

The first week of our visit was hampered by a nasty flu which limited our visiting time and challenged both of our "must-do" lists. The rental car sat parked for the first three days until we felt well enough to drive it to the storage unit where we would "pay our respects" to our "homeless" household items. 


Our mission, that morning, was to take home [there's that word again] some items to make life in Ceriana even more fabulous, but when I raised the rolling metal door, a pall fell over me, darkening my already miserable mood. There, surprisingly neater than I remembered, sat our things; our stuff; our cantlivewithouts; our impulse buys! The few items I had on my "take-home" list were buried deep in a stack of treasures each one triggering a memory, or, a mystery; as in, "why did we keep that?" 


On Rich's "must find and take home" list were the "oxygen" pillows we paid a fortune for and which greatly reduce one's snoring. I, on the other hand, was after my collection of Voightländer 35mm cameras--I have a romantic attachment to heavy german mechanical things. [I still intend to blog about shipping over our Benz!] 


Ill, overwhelmed and slightly depressed, we returned to the rental car with two items: Rich with a hoody, and I with a leather jacket, now too tight--must have shrunk!


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We went on with our holiday: Christmas Eve at my sister's in San Jose and a Christmas Day Drive to Rich's brother's in San Diego. Good people, good food, good times! We returned to the Bay Area to prepare for our departure.


Our last two days home were spent checking the last few items off our respective "lists." We saw three movies, sorted out various computer problems with third party apple™ geeks and had one last burger.


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I'm happy to report that after a third visit to Public Storage we left with the following: two oxygen pillows, four german cameras, a socket wrench set, Rich's favorite sweater, my STRS paperwork, and a half bottle of Howards® feed and wax--"Really?"


I returned the leather jacket to its grey bin.




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And now we're home again surrounded with the old treasures we've acquired when purchasing this 800 year old house and a few new items from our former lives back. . . home?






Time to get crackin' on the old armoire with the Howards® and some "0000" steel-wool.