mouseworks

...on Thursday. I've got all the running around town stuff to deal with today -- stuff to the curb, stuff to the Salvation Army, stuff out of the eaves to decide what to do with, stuff to put in boxes, stuff to put in the backpack that goes in the duffle that goes in the belly of two different planes and hopefully makes it to Nicaragua when I do.

Huey Callison has been a prince -- loaning me a wet dry vac and carrying big heavy furniture away (some he and Sue are keeping, some Sue's got on CraigsList as free pickups), and will be hosting my car in his driveway for five months. And lots of my stuff, either in his guest room or sitting in the car. Winter clothes, except for a fleece jacket, are staying to see what the Jinotega Decembers are really like. I've got some minor sewing work to be done on three summer things. I'll be taking two pots, two sets of sheets, one cutting board, and a knife roll in the checked luggage, along with whatever else fits that seems essential.

I hadn't realized I acquired so much until I started to get rid of it. Some of it was identity stuff -- the camping equipment, the bicycle, and some of it wasn't. I think I may re-kidnap my brother's F3 if I do stay.

Until I know for sure that I'll be staying for longer than five months, I'm trying to keep my possessions down to what I can lug out of town in a hurry.

As I told the woman where I'll be staying initially, I'm both exhilarated and terrified. Can I actually live on $600 a month plus the cost of Spanish lessons? How fast can I learn Spanish? Will Kentucky get the certified birth certificate back to me in time? Is Nicaragua going to fuss because my health letter doesn't have my address on it? What happens if.....

Binoculars, digital pocket camera, and a netbook with a separate mouse. I should be fine.

A boxer/taxi driver will be picking me up at Sandino airport on the north side of Managua and driving me to Jinotega. My hostess will be riding along, I think. This saves a night at Best Western Las Mercedes. Reports as they happen.

I'm paying my landlord $300 for any residual mess.

I now have all the paperwork that I need to apply for residency in Nicaragua that needs two more sets of seals of authentication and all that, which I'm planning to do as early as possible tomorrow (State Department office for authenticating state authentications of notaries opens at 7 a.m. in Foggy Bottom).

Sur la Table had the knife roll, which now has my sharpening steel (restaurant supply store grade) and seven of my best knives, plus my chicken shears in a pocket with my wine steward's tool. This and the Leatherman Wave and some other things will go in the check in baggage.

I have a Nicaraguan routable map on my GPS, which has detailed maps of Esteli and Leon, but not of Jinotega or Matagalpa.

Salvation Army got the rice cooker and the tea water boiler and the copper pot, plus some miscellaneous sweaters that were in the car and not necessary.

I have to take the rest to the stuff in the living room out to the curb or to Huey's, probably out to the curb.

My subscription to the New York Times Book Review is cancelled, along with my renter's insurance, Cox Cable internet, and the electric service. Two places left for address changes, and I need to pack sometime before Thursday morning, and sleep in dispensable pajamas.

(Reminds self to send landlord a check for damages and possible further clearances of small stuff -- the big stuff is gone).

Huey will be getting the complete to 2010 collection of whatever I've been watching on the multiple connections hard drive, and I'll turn off Time Machine and further backups.

I'm taking some pots, and probably will pack the Canadian whiskey for Suzanne in one of them, wrapped carefully in lens wraps.

Tired, but have to get the stuff out of the downstairs carpeted room so it's cleared for intensive cleaning.