Movers Or U-Haul

The winter of February 2013, Mi Miguel knew that after the first month of living in Indiana he didn't want to live there anymore. I introduced him to a word that I had learned through a friend of mine doing a "new word a day" on social media.
hurple
- To hurkle or hurple is to draw one's limbs in and scrunch up the shoulders in reaction to the cold or in a storm.

Hurpling became Mi Miguel's favorite thing to do.

This is the back yard of our Indiana home. In the winter we have ten whole acres of this beautiful winter wonderland. Or at least that's how I saw it. But when Mi Miguel took a look at our first winter's snow he pushed his shoulders a little closer to his ears and said, "So that's what it will look like when hell freezes over." This view is what spurred Mi Miguel to want to move from Indiana just one month after moving there. I tried to come up with reasons to love Indiana. That spring our grandson and daughter came for a visit.

Hm. what can we do to get Mi Miguel to enjoy Indiana? Aha, we'll raise chickens again. We tried before but it turned out we had gotten mostly roosters. This time we'll get all pullets. It will be fun raising chickens. It will give us a reason to enjoy winters in Indiana. 

We bought eight baby chicks. Our grandson loved being a chicken farmer. Mi Miguel, not so much.

So we bought three ducks. But it still wasn't enough to bring him any joy in Indiana.

 And then the chickens made a new friend.

A skunk! Have you ever seen anything so adorable. Mi Miguel was not amused.

I was totally amused and got this close to admire and photograph this little darling. And then he/she quickly turned and lifted his/her tail and I ran. I ran faster than I've ever ran. Mi Miguel was finally amused.

 

 But then spring and summer became fall that first year of living there. Of course that means fall turns into winter. And as November approached so did the windy cold weather. Mi Miguel was sure that the squirrel in our back yard was so cold his tail turned white.

Unfortunately, it was really cold, there was more snow and ice. Mi Miguel increasingly lifted his shoulders as November turned to December. I was sure he would get used to the Indiana winters. But he wasn't showing any signs of it. Even the deer crossing the creek in our backyard was not enough for Mi Miguel to find the beauty in winter. I tried to find ways to keep Mi Miguel in Indiana.

"Let's raise sheep." I said to him with so much enthusiasm that he couldn't reject the idea. 

I was convinced that since he had built us a beautiful coop, he could surely build this barn. When I presented the idea to him.

He said let's forget about the sheep. Maybe if we ran a business. That would make the winter goes by quickly.

How about a Bed And Breakfast. He wanted it for me. But I could tell he wanted out of Indiana. There were a few other reasons we wanted to leave Indiana but those are for another blog or perhaps a book someday. No B&B for him and me.

As 2015 approached us. We were both unhappy and we were both very cold. 

By the middle of February Mi Miguel finally transferred to Florida. He was ecstatic. 

I stayed behind to sell our house. Indiana wasn't so bad. I didn't see what the big deal was about the cold. Yes it's cold but not that cold. I really couldn't see why we were moving after just two years.

And then it snowed and snowed. Indiana got ten inches and the roads were very slippery. I didn't dare call anyone to plow our long driveway. What if they wrecked or slid into the pond that set right by the road across the street from my driveway.

I had to shovel myself out of my driveway. You never know, there might be an emergency. I shoveled and shoveled until I no longer saw the beauty of winter.

Mi Miguel called just as I was finishing up shoveling the snow. I was freezing cold and exhausted. He called to let me know that he was sitting on the dock by a bay. He had just seen two dolphins. He was overjoyed. I was not. I wanted out of Indiana.

Needless to say after a few failed contracts, we finally had a buyer. Mi Miguel begrudgingly drove back to Indiana and we started packing to move. 

Do you think we moved ourselves or hired movers? Before you answer, I should inform you that United Van Lines wanted to charge us $13,000 to move our belongings to Florida. I sold all of our heavy furniture to get the price down. The estimator came back out and did another inventory. She said, "You are now in peak season so it's still $13,000."

If you guessed that we moved ourselves, you are right. We had an incredible amount of stuff even after selling so much. We got the largest truck and pulled my vehicle on a trailer with the U-Haul truck. 

I pulled the biggest trailer with Mi Miguel's truck. Somehow we made it to Florida.

So far we have been to Honeymoon Island. It was beautiful but beware of the sharp rocks. Aqua shoes are a must have for that beach.

We met new people at a coffee shop and thoroughly enjoyed our amigos de habla hispana.

I've also been venturing out and discovering some great thrift stores. One of them advertised 50% off of clothing on Wednesdays. I found a gorgeous vintage skirt. I decided to wait and buy it on sale. So I got up early this morning and WAHOO the skirt was still there. Yeah, I'm really going to like Florida. To help us learn a new area Mi Miguel and I do a fun restaurant quest.

We are going to start this week. We've done this before in Illinois and Indiana. We start with the letter A and try to work our way through to the letter Z avoiding chain restaurants. Anyone have any suggestions in the Clearwater/Tampa area that starts with the letter A? (Image is from clip art)