Howdy y’all!
We’re fixing to leave Cambodia for Canada and retirement. As you can well imagine this isn’t your usual move. There is no waiting until the last minute, throw everything into the back of the car, drive across town, and dump it in the new place. My motto of Always put off until tomorrow what should’ve been done yesterday, won’t work here.

Okay, it will, but I’m not likely to like the results. It would mean items abandoned in the old home, things that have real meaning to me, and people let down. So, I’ve decided to throw out the old playbook and try something new. Thus, I’m writing this post.

Yep, this is me telling you that I probably won’t be posting until next week. Monday next, I’ll be sleeping at the in-laws somewhere in Canada. Until then, I’ve got classes to teach, possessions to dispose of, and bags to carefully pack.

For the past thirty years, every time we’ve moved country, we’ve only taken suitcases. Even though most schools offer shipping allowances for arriving and departing teachers, we’ve never used it. In our first move, we realized that the cost of shipping was far greater than the cost of our furniture. New furnishings is often covered by a settling in allowance.

With airlines rapidly shrinking their baggage allowances, it’s been harder to do. Where we used to get two suitcases each — moving with a toddler who gets two full-sized suitcases was a blessing — we now only get one. Where we used to get 30 or 35 kilos a bag, we get 23 kg. Books have become a luxury. Knickknacks and tchotchkes are out of the question. We’re cutting it to the bone, almost, but not quite, literally.

The one thing that is worrying me enough to evoke my Pathological Demand Avoidance-based freeze reaction is finding an old outdated portable hard drive that has photos from across the thirty years on it. I’m really scared that it got thrown out somehow and I’m reluctant to confront that reality. Much easier to just flee and leave to providence for whether it makes it or not. On the other hand, I really will miss those photos.

Okay. This is your warning. I may or may not be posting this week. I definitely will be next week, but from the other side of the International Date Line but from still on Phnom Penh time.

Wish me luck, siblings! There is still much to be done between now and then.

Blog On!
Jack