Twenty months into this unwelcome transition, I’m still feeling unsettled with a roller coaster of emotions I can’t identify half the time. Things are happening, though.

Friends invited me to travel to Shreveport, and they taught me to play a few casino table games. We had an enjoyable couple of days.

I’m helping other friends close their antique store, which is a sad event, but they are looking forward to having more time to enjoy life, and I support them wholeheartedly in that endeavor. They need everything out of the building by the end of the month, so this next week will be hectic.

The painting of the house is nearly complete. Once they no longer need the lift to paint, they can complete the roof installation. The two bathrooms at the back of the house are next.

The two windows on this corner need to be rebuilt, so painting is delayed until that can happen.

A few renovation projects are underway in the new building I purchased. I had them remove a few walls, add a new wall, and move some doors around. Carpet has been removed in preparation for epoxying the floor. Bathrooms have been renovated, and in one case, two half baths have been combined into a full bath–well, a shower, so maybe that’s only a three-quarter bath.

I was traveling at the four-month mark. Then I had some tasks to complete. So here we are. I’m attempting to slow my sprint while not coming to a complete halt. I FEEL as if I’m not getting enough done. I FEEL as if I’m falling behind and will not continue to make progress. In reality, estate tasks are getting done. Day-to-day household tasks tend to slip.

I closed on the sale of the ranch last week. I’m still seeking a buyer for the 4th St property. I have a trailer load or two of items to remove from the property and cleaning to complete. To move the lantern sale forward, I need to come up with a price to give my buyer, and we need to agree on it.

I wanted to figure out how to close out the estate myself, but I’ve had to admit I don’t know how to do it without risking making important mistakes, so I will be scheduling time with a tax and financial adviser to make sure I get it right.

I enjoyed my 45th high school reunion in Ohio. I enjoyed seeing classmates and spending time with them as well as a few other friends. Alan readily agreed to come on this trip when I got the date, so I was sad to not have him with me physically. Of course, he’s always with me in my heart.

I added a day to the trip to spend time with a friend from another class. I think it had been twenty years since we’d seen each other last, so that visit was long overdue. Another friend was unable to attend the reunion, so we met for lunch. Always a good visit with her. Some of our class met for the season opener football game. That was fun.

My high school biology teacher had lost his wife of 52 years a year and a half ago, and we each understood where the other was coming from, so I’m grateful I reached out to him while I was there. Besides, it was his birthday, so we needed to celebrate. Through the years, we have kept in touch. While we hadn’t seen each other for way too long, our friendship extended beyond high school, so it wasn’t as if we hadn’t been in touch for the last 45 years.

I had lunch with mutual friends of Alan and mine on the way back to Texas. I was able to catch up with a lot of people important to me on this trip, and I’m grateful for it.

One other thing I was able to accomplish was shifting Alan’s email from his primary mindspring account to his backup account. I’ve wanted to close the mindspring account for several years. I was notified while traveling that my pre-pay was up, and I needed to renew or I’d be paying on the month-to-month rate. That was my incentive to complete this housekeeping task. I will be closing that account next week after 25 years as a customer of that company.