Memories

Part of our task while in Long Beach is to help our daughter get ready for the next segment of her life as she will complete her undergraduate degree in Biology this December and be moving away from here. This help entails going through a great deal of accumulated "stuff", unloading some and getting the rest ready for shipment to Washington State. Having no base of operations in Long Beach also means we must divest ourselves of some of our things which we originally moved here four years ago. These are the items that made it past the many listings on Craigslist, the countless yardsales, and the ultimate donation to Goodwill/Salvation Army - in short the very best, most memorable of our worldly possessions (at least the ones we didn't take to Mexico). This stuffed dog for example was my wife's when she was a baby, but is now one more thing with which we must part. We kept it all this time in a trunk of family mementos, but after four years the bond has been broken. It is difficult and sad to part with items that once meant so much to us (and in many instances still do), but a good purging will reduce what we have to move and ultimately make our lives easier.