Does it count if it was an unintentional hiatus?
It's been a busy 6 months. I'll recap.
In May, my son got married. And because nothing in my life is ever easy, I contracted COVID the week of the wedding. The wedding where I was making the wedding cake. Then transporting it 200 miles away to the wedding location and decorating it and 6 dozen cupcakes. For me, it was a slightly worse than a cold, not as bad as the flu. 2 nights of body aches and a follow up sore throat. I volunteered not to attend the wedding but that wasn't an option for my son. So I wore an N95 mask for the ceremony and took it off when around people who didn't care. No one got it. There was more drama involved but suffice to say, we all survived.
I tried to sell my house. Initially on my own, then I got a realtor. I had tried to time it such that I could be out by September, and since the market in the spring was still pretty hot, I waited until jut after the wedding to list it. Which coincided with interest rates taking a big jump. With all the work and improvements I had put into the house, I had it priced such that I wasn't losing any money...but neither was I making money. Still, it didn't sell. So I contracted with a property management company to mange it as a rental.
Well...THAT was a 9.9 on the clusterfu@k scale. I won't get into all of the things that the company did (except...maybe...turning the switch on my furnace off in order to be able to call a repair service in which I'm fairly certain they get a kickback AND they charge me an additional 18% of the service fee so that THEY can supervise). I do have a renter in the house now who is thrilled with the house and will treat it as her own. I've requested a release from the contract with the property management company and am forging onward.
I put everything I have of value to me into a 5x10 storage, sold everything else and I drove halfway across the country pulling a small U-haul trailer and a pitbull as my co-pilot. It was challenging only in as much as I couldn't leave him anywhere(not the car for fear he would tear it up...not the hotels, didn't want him barking). I did remember my dad had a friend in Idaho who I called and met on the way, which was lovely.
I got to Washington state and was able to experience a completely out of the norm fall where there was very little rain in Oct (to be fair there had been very little rain all summer) and lots of sun. I arrived Oct 1, the day that Canada opened the border to the non-vaccinated so what I had written off as not going to be able to do while here, has not become an option.
I just got back from a week in South Carolina, having spent Thanksgiving with my son and daughter-in-law and I fell in love with South Carolina. I even got to spend 24 hours on the beach (which ALWAYS brings me inner peace) and came back with a titch of color. It was a strange feeling though being a guest in your child's house.Not bad...just strange.
My sister and her husband leave 3 weeks from Monday for an around the world cruise, which is why I am here, house/pet watching while they traipse the globe for the next 6 months. I'm not sure how you top that on the vacation scale though.
The day after they leave my two youngest will join me here for Christmas. It will be almost 3 months since I've seen them and it appears they are doing just fine without me, which I am going to put in my win column. I have so much planned I'm not sure how I will fit it all in in 6 days. Watch me.
