Unfinished Business

I am constantly amazed at how fast time goes by.  It has been over two years since my husband Greg died and so that long since I have posted anything on my blog page.  Part of the reason for that is that right after he died, I didn’t have a lot of desire to pick up my camera.  I was simply overwhelmed.  And then I got so busy that I didn’t have time to pick up my camera.

There is so much to be done after someone dies and it has to be done when you least feel like doing it.  Closing accounts and dealing with financial matters, cancelling subscriptions to magazines, sorting through a closet of coats to donate to homeless shelters for the winter – mundane things and, of course, drastic things.  

Olive, the pug, and I spent the winter after Greg died in our big, old house and I made a pledge to myself that it would be our last winter there.  So when I could bear to do it, I began sorting through and throwing away.  It is both difficult and painful to go through 35 years of accumulated stuff.  I asked myself time and again how the heck we let things get so out of hand.  But it got done with much help from my friends and my wonderful kids.

In a matter of months, I sold Greg’s two motorcycles, traded in both of our cars for a Rav4 Hybrid and had an estate sale, with the help from a bit of a wacky, but tireless, estate sale professional.  At this sale everything that wasn’t able to walk out of the old place was on the market. Of course, I kept all the memories.

And in July, the house got snatched up before I had a minute to think about it and I lucked into an end unit condo in the place where I wanted to be.  And though I went through many sleepless nights worrying that things would get screwed up in some way, all things fell into place as if things were meant to actually happen the way they did.  Again it was with a lot of help from my kids and my friends.

So here I am with Olive and we are very happy.  We have a lot less stuff, even though my daughter Carrie insists that I didn’t get rid of nearly enough of my books.  Well, some things you just have to be able to keep. 

My new place - bright, sunny and cheerful.

Life is always interesting even when it is sometimes unbearable.  I hope to make the most of it while I still can.  So I am going to try to get back into the habit of picking up my camera and blogging when I have something to say. 

P.S.  I don't know if it was because I was away from Blogger for so long or what, but it seems I can't continue on with my old Blog (Commonplace Beauty Photography) so here is a link to the old blog in case you're interested.
http://commonplacebeautyphotography.blogspot.com/