Retirement - The Big Partee!

10/16/15     Jim's Post (con't.)

....Back again. As I was saying in the last post....BIG PARTEEE! It was amazing....over 100 people showed up! Karen was trying to keep it a surprise, but the cat was let out of the bag by a friend in Amboy. What was kept a surprise is that my "Grandma Rocker's" bandmates from grade school, both my daughters from opposite ends of the country, my cousin Andy from Phoenix, my sister Mel and her partner Rick and friends from college all came that day and for the weekend. So a great time all in all, to mark my transition into the next phase of my Life.

So August 21 came, the day to be out of 405 South Street West, Amboy.  I was late for the closing because I was getting a load of clothes out of the drier!  Took a final shower, almost forgot my hairbrush on the kitchen counter!  Oh yeah, the dog!! (Yes, here are the keys to your new home, and the dog's name is Tank...)  Ok, come on, Tankie, hop in the car!

So, the first day of the New Reality.  You could open the door to our R-pod camper, but literally could not set foot in it because it was crammed full of Stuff!  So we stayed that first night at the home of dear friends Tim and Kristi Krengel, off-loading computer components and music amplifiers as well.

Then into the next phase, which seemed remarkably like the past two months.  Stuff!  We now had a storage area in Amboy, a car, a van (1999 GMC Safari), the camper and temporarily, half of our two-car garage at South St. West.  It was like the old shell game... put the box under this shell and shuffle them around.  Where is it?  This shell?  Nope, that's two dressers.  This other shell?  Nope that's a kayak!  Well, you get the picture.

Moving mattresses hillbilly style!

Even in the middle of this two-week period leading up to our eventual departure from Minnesota, it was comical.  Going to town?  Take stuff out of the car so Tank our golden retriever can come with.  Put the stuff in the camper.  Go to town, come back.  Take the stuff out of the camper and put it back in the car.  Gradually we whittle down the Stuff, some being discarded but most going into storage.

14'x17' storage space, piled nearly
 to the ceiling!

Our storage space in Amboy is part of an old automobile showroom.  We rented a 14 by 17 space and believe me it is full!  Of Stuff!  As an example we have a dresser and a dining room table together as a base.  Then two box springs and two double bed mattresses on top of that.  Like the cherry perched on top of the whipped cream is our deck table, upside down, legs in the air.  Our friend and co-conspirator Gary Mau proposed perching our bright red kayak on the legs of the deck table like some kind of crazy hood ornament!

Jim Jam Band with a couple of fans!

We had a last Jim Jam gig at the Firemen's Dance in Amboy on September 14, and then headed off to northern Wisconsin.  Tank offered the title "Traveling with Humans" but was outvoted.

So to get back to my first words...  acorns.  Traveling like this makes you much more aware of your natural surroundings.  Most of us spend most of our days inside, insulated to a large extent from what Mother Nature is carrying out.  Anyway it is now Autumn.  Nights are getting cooler, days are getting shorter, leaves turning colors, and...   acorns falling.  Our camper is parked under an oak tree and I know now why the season is called Fall!  "The acorns are falling!"  Boink boink!