Yesterday we started taking inventory of every single thing in our house, and each item was placed into a bucket: Boat/Bay, Storage, Sell, or Donate. There isn’t a lot of stuff going to the Boat/Bay, and about 25% of the stuff we have is going to Storage. This means a lot of cool stuff is going to be sold or donated in the next 6 weeks. It’s funny to me that we’ve been hauling 75% of our stuff around all this time if it’s this easy to let go of, but I guess that’s what Americans do…

Pay a lot of cash to collect stuff, pay to haul stuff around, pay to store stuff, and have stuff to look at. Buy as much stuff as you can, because it’s never enough stuff.

The reason for the inventory is that we have multiple paths going at the same time. We have to get what we’re keeping into a climate-controlled storage unit, we have to get the 2 plants we own down to David’s sister Wendy in Oregon, we have 2 cars to get back to the Bay Area, and we have stuff to go back to the Bay Area that we will either put on the boat or get rid of there if it doesn’t fit on the boat.

A couple of days ago, we discovered that U-Haul has something they call U-Boxes (it’s their branded version of PODS). PODS doesn’t come to Port Townsend, but there is a huge U-Haul facility here with one of the climate-controlled Raiders of the Lost Ark storage buildings for these U-Boxes. October 6 is when 3 boxes will be delivered to our front door, and 2 weeks later they will haul them away. You only pay for the boxes you use, and I expect we’ll only use 2 boxes anyway. It’s stress-free to be able to load our stuff directly into the box, have someone else move the box, and when we get to wherever we end up a few years from now, they will deliver the boxes to wherever that is (this includes international).

The “Red Bra Regatta”, a huge woman regatta, is going on in the Bay Area the weekend before we leave Port Townsend. I think I’m going to put the top down on the car, and drive down to the Bay Area for the regatta and leave the car down there. That clears up the two car issue, so if we need to rent a small truck to get the rest of the stuff down there, now we can.

As the days get closer, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how much I really do love Port Townsend and the Pacific Northwest. We’ve been here only 11 months; it’s so nice to live in a town where you can leave your front door or car unlocked, and nothing gets stolen. The beauty of this area is astounding. And I’ve come around to realizing something, hold onto your hats… I really don’t like the Bay Area anymore. I’ve lived off and on there since I was 15 years old, and I know the area really well. I have some incredible friends there, and there’s parts of the area I really like. But, it’s changed in the last 10 years. There’s garbage everywhere. The traffic is horrific. The homeless problem is huge (Slumdog Millionaire huge), and everywhere you look there are tent cities. It’s expensive, and lower-income people really struggle with living there. In the last few years, the Bay Area goes through many days during “fire season” where the smoke is so thick you can feel it searing your lungs.

I’ll never forget how creepy “Orange Wednesday” was.

I remind myself regularly that we’re doing all of this for the end goal, the goal we both had individually before we met each other. The path to the goal is in sight, and we’re going to achieve it.

Two years to get the boat cruise ready and save more money into investments, and we’re leaving. We’ll come back up here. The next time we are “living” in Port Townsend will be in a transient slip on our boat.

In other news, this morning while I was walking Ernie, I met a couple who bought a house right around the corner from where we live here. He was wearing a Three Bridge Fiasco t-shirt and a Swiftsure Yachts vest. Initially I mentioned the vest (that’s the same brokerage we bought Prudence through), then I saw the Fiasco shirt. Turns out that they own a 44′ Alden that they used to have in Brickyard Cove Marina. Small world. Then again, that’s why people have started calling this place “Berkeley North”.

I wonder how long before we get a Berkeley Bowl and some whacko rent control in this town?

(The Kim Project just passed it’s 2 week mark yesterday, and has lost 8 pounds. The risk assessment team says it’s going to be a successful launch.)