It’s funny how not having a true home changes one’s blogging patterns.  I’ve become an every-other-day blogger instead of an almost every day blogger.  Apologies.

I’m fortunate to have access to the Internet at all so I’m not complaining.  We’ve been staying with our friends, the Finches, and it’s been great.  The budding romance between our daughter Anna and the older man, Levi (he’s 4!) continues to provide intrigue. 

But I can’t get into my Image posting software on this computer so I can’t put pictures up as readily as I’d like which is a demotivating factor in my willingness to blog every day.  I’m hopeful that I will be able to punch into a wireless network during our travels so that I can post pictures easily.  In 16 days, we depart…

Sixteen days!

Wow…seems so soon, and yet when you think about how we started this 5-7 years ago it brings a little more perspective.

My life has been compartmentalized.  Not so much in a philosophic way, but in a very literal (or material) way.  Yesterday evening I spent an hour and a half sorting and putting our "storage items" into plastic tubs I purchased at Wal-Mart for $3 a pop.

Here’s the picture:  the left side of the room (that used to be the office) contains four gray tubs filled with items we are shipping to our Himalayan cave.  These are the items we want to have over there but the one’s we should be able to live without.  The fact that we’re shipping them is a calculated risk.  Posting things to a Himalayan cave is not an exact science.  Hiccups occur.

The right corner of the room contains a few suitcases and carry-on bags.  These bags will be full of items we do not wish to lose.  Oh sure, airlines lose bags all the time, but we are hopeful that being in the proximity of our bags during our trip will improve our odds (a little) of being reunited with our luggage.

The opposite corner of the room contains piles of books.  These have not yet been packed.  We will have these books sent to us once we arrive at our Himalayan cave.  We hope to use (as referred to by the USPS)  "M" bags to ship these overseas.  Having books in your own language is always convenient when you’re living in a foreign country.

The right wall of the office no longer consists of white plaster.  Instead, a wall of identical gray plastic tubs provides an illusion of support.  Stacked three high in three seperate columns are the vestiges of our American existence.  I’m being a bit facetious because life isn’t essentially stuff, but as we know stuff points to memories and the artifacts of our experience.  These 9 tubs make up the last 31 years of what Christa and I call "our lives".  To others, many of these tubs may be full of insignificant baubles, but to us each item to some degree holds meaning or usefulness.  The tubs have markings such as: Todd’s Relics, Christa’s Relics, Christmas, Kitchen, Photo Albums, Books, Videos, Love Letters.

You get the idea.  Our lives have been simplified to some degree and yet we are true nomads now.  We have only what we (with the assistance of a hired hand and a dolly) can carry on our backs.  We’re living out of suitcases, ready to fly by night.  All that to say…

This is weird!

There’s no better way to describe it.  The next few…scratch, can’t say that anymore…two+ weeks should get really interesting.  Welcome to tub life.