Wining...and packing...and whining...

The Goddess of Wine and JD have been busy, busy, busy lately. So busy, we haven't done any writing. That's 'cause we're busy packing up the house so that we can move to the Central Coast.

It's been pretty crazy here at Chez Lowe/Dickey. In order to get the house ready for sale, we've had to go through 25 years' worth of...stuff. Mostly JD's stuff. Sigh...

When we moved in together back in 1989, I was traveling pretty light. I had moved six times in five years, so all I had with me was my bedroom furniture, a dining room set that had been in storage for quite a while, my books, and my clothes. JD, just this side of being a hoarder, had lived alone for WAY too long, and even though we had made a noble effort of cleaning out his cave, I mean, house, still had WAY too much stuff.

I'm still pretty good about clearing out stuff. I don't save magazines after I've read them, I go through my closet and dresser every year and cull clothing and accessories not used, and donate most stuff to the American Cancer Society. JD, conversely, doesn't throw away or donate anything because "I might need it." Sigh...The last time he cleaned out his closet was towards the end of 2008. At that time, we gave away over 20 bags of clothing, and he still had WAY more clothing than I did!

So, now we're prepping the house for sale. I brought in an organization expert who provided hands-on guidance and assistance to clear out most of the garage as well as trouble spots in the house. Saint Jessica we call her. Multiple loads of trash and recycling later, and we're still traveling WAY too heavy, but significantly lighter than we were.

Empty

We've given away 90 boxes of books. Let me repeat that: We've given away 90 boxes of books. At an average of 75 books per box, that comes to 6,750 books. But don't worry, we still have WAY too many books. We still have plenty to read. So far, we have a large Pod with books, artwork (much of which we never had room to hang in our little, but very full, house), glassware, dishes, and stuff; bookcases, tools, some furniture, bedding, records - vinyl and personal, CDs and DVDs, and who knows what else JD feels sure we need to keep. We have been packing stuff since February, all of which is now in the Pod.

Almost full

The house feels empty, even though there's still furniture in it, but we've cleared as much as we can for the floor guys to come in this week and lay new laminate. Next week, the painters will come. Then we'll stage the house, and put it on the market. People who know say it will sell quickly. Fingers crossed.

Just to keep things interesting, we're also in the middle of moving JD's dad to a new board and care. Jim is 98 years old and severely crippled from strokes. He requires a significant amount of care. Oh, and he's in Los Osos, a lovely Central Coast community about 3-1/2 hours away from Burbank. We've been going up and down the coast - especially JD - finding a new place and making appropriate arrangements. All while packing and trying to find ourselves a new place to live in the Central Coast. Heavy sigh...

But all is good. We're moving forward. And we've been able to squeeze a few wine events in between all the craziness. We just haven't had time to sit and write about them. So, someday soon, I expect to be able to tell you all about the wonderful lunches we've had with the #LAWineWriters, the delightful time I had being included in #CasaDumetz's #WordsToLiveBy Friday night speaker's series, making friends near and far, and sharing meals and wine with lots of great folks.

Stay tuned! I've been Tweeting and Facebooking and Instagramming our progress and our events in lieu of writing,  so follow me on Twitter @goddessofvino, and Facebook (Goddess of Wine), and Instagram @goddessofwine. Cheers!

Oh, and if you know of anyone who has a 3 bedroom/2 bath house with a garage in the Morro Bay/Baywood-Los Osos region for rent under $2000 a month, lemme know!