8/18: 8 days and counting down

8/18: 8 days and counting down

8:50am

On the tasks list for today:
1.) Catch up on laundry so I can complete the clothes packing
2.) Pack up linens
3.) Start packing Weeze's travel bag
4.) Pay medical bills
5.) Start packing up kitchen

So last night I dialed in the under the bed storage. There is enough room under there to store all the clothes I am going to need for this trip as well as for the China trip and the next few months after (before I have access to my POD).

This morning I put together all the components that will make up my front passenger seat storage to make sure that everything fits as I anticipated. The blue container is the full size storage, the gray storage container is where all my car repair/emergency necessities will go. I have an emergency tire patch kit, and extra inverter, and my brad new car jumper and air compressor station, as well as a cross country travel guide in there. Beneath those are the two storage crates that I bought. I have not yet figured out what will go in there, but I have set aside a corner of my bedroom for all the stuff that needs to get packed into the car for my trip and it continues to grow, so there is no doubt in my mind that it will be utilized. The other black crate contains my solar system (battery and charge controller).

I am also working on prepping Weeze for the trip and doing some travel carrier training with her. She's got "pinkie," her rubber treat holder in there with her. She should be fine since she's been spending a lot of time laying at my feet under the table or under the foot rest of my recliner. (I think she knows something big is going on and is always trying to make sure she stays close).

9:33pm
I guess I didn't get as much done as I had planned today. At least it doesn't feel like it. Did three loads of laundry and put 2 of the 3 away (either packed for POD or packed for trip), the last is currently in the dryer. Packed up as much of the linens as I could with some of it air drying. Packed up most of what I could think of for Weeze's travel bag. Paid medical bills, but didn't get to start up in the kitchen. I found that overwhelming. I did instead verify that my new tires are already in so first thing tomorrow I will go get them installed, along with my full size spare. Then I'll head over to Firestone to get a lifetime alignment and all my other maintenance. When I called and got an estimate for all the other work that I needed to get done, they came up with a much more economical pricing system. I'll try to get as much of it done as I can before I have my eye appt at 2:30 at Wally World.

My BFF also told me about Google Photo so I looked into that for backing up all my photos before leaving on my trip, just in case something happens to my hard drives. I guess my life can be explained in 86,000 pictures. That is currently what is uploading to the wonderful "cloud" and slowing down my computer. Although I don't have any "risque" photos to hide from the cyber world, I do have my embarrassing bad photography skills. Maybe this way I will actually look at my China, Italy, Greece, Ireland trip photos....when I'm board and playing on my phone waiting for my car to be "maintained."

I did sort though some paperwork until I found enough triggers of bad memories from my past to want to move on. I have to say if any part of my place is a wreck, it's my inability to organize my paperwork. On the bright side of things, I did finally find that copy of my certified birth certificate, so I could have started the paper work to get proper ID for my flight home with Weeze, but just so happens my passport has arrived. Daddy sent it to me after getting it back from the Chinese Embassy. Yay! I finally have an identity. The last couple of weeks I have been unable to provide my identity to doctors that want to shove probes up both ends, to employees what want to verify my identity before replacing the very cards that were stolen at the same time as the cards I am trying to replace, stores who want to see my ID before I pick up items I've already paid for online.......at this point, I'm surprised the dog doesn't ask for ID before letting me into the appt....by the way, that totally made me picture Weeze as the dog butler statue in Modern Family!

The most progress I can show is that the pic below is of all the things that are going to GoodWill so far......has to be more to come if I'm gonna make it into a 7x7x8 POD. But every step of shedding is a step closer to the freedom to live a more mobile life!