The Bittersweet Separation

It will be three weeks tomorrow that my husband Jim left for Prince Edward Island without me to start a new job. He is really enjoying living with his brother and wife plus using any extra time he has to work on our retirement home. Since he works full-time five days a week plus Saturday mornings, his free time is limited for house renos. He does manage to work a couple of hours most nights after work or go up early in the mornings. He was able to scrape all the window sills and repaint them.

Once the weather turns colder or there are rainy days, he works inside on the drywall. He thinks he will soon be ready to use primer on several of the upstairs rooms. I sure wish I could be out there  working along beside him. He sends me lots of pictures, some of the gorgeous sunsets seen out our  kitchen window.

So far I am managing on my own. Well I'm not entirely on my own as friends and family have pitched in to do what they can. Girlfriends often take me downtown to find empty boxes for packing and after we take care of all our numerous errands we find a nice place for lunch. My daughter calls encouraging me when I most need it and my son came last weekend with a friend. We moved all the packed boxes out into a back shed, plus many smaller pieces of furniture. They brought the couch from downstairs up and put it out at the road for free..A young man came along Sunday and got himself a great bargain, it's the best couch for having a nap on..My husband said he would miss it.

The big quandary is still when to list the house. It would be early spring before my husband could get time to drive up to rent a moving truck for the big exodus. Jim's son called me Monday to tell me he would be willing to fly in from British Columbia to help us move..also my brother-in-law just around the corner has offered to help..I'm keeping my fingers crossed the house will sell quickly.

I've had help with the lawn cutting, wish it would stop growing! We've just enjoyed a week with temperatures in the mid twenties, so the grass is going to need cutting at least once more. I've been weeding, trimming perennials, closing up the vegetable garden and collecting so many large leaf bags of yard waste. It is so fortunate that my neighbour takes his grass clippings to the town dump and takes all my garden waste too..his wife is good to bring me boxes for packing every week.

The daytime hours pass very quickly, I often forget to eat or drink, then wonder why I'm so thirsty! When my son was here he made sure I kept drinking water. I'm not used to cooking for one person, so lunch is never an issue but try harder to take a break and have some supper. Now the house is mostly decluttered and it's looking ready for showing, I've started to calm down (somewhat)..

I'm going out for supper tonight with a friend, another girlfriend is coming up Saturday to spend the night so we can take a cruise on a steamship Sunday. It's a great way to view the fall colors which are so beautiful now. We are supposed to get a lot of rain on Saturday and even more on Sunday which might bring down a lot of the leaves. Whatever happens, it will be a relaxing day.

After each job that gets done here, I see six more that need doing but as long as the weather holds I will keep plugging away. The inside of the house had to be my priority but since it's looking good, I can now concentrate more on the back yard. One of these days I have to tackle hubbies workshop, now that will be a new experience. It's not a place I went into often.

It came to mind last night that we will be able to enjoy our property three years earlier.  I realized one day I will look back on all these challenges I face here with a big smile. I survived it all, probably grew stronger as a person and it will feel like a dream..today I almost forgot it was Friday so must get the garbage and blue boxes out to the curb. My day dreams were over for the day!
There is a good chance I'll be joining hubby for the winter so looking forward to that. It can't come soon enough. Well off to pack some more boxes and maybe my suitcase too!