Finland

The Jarimo's summer house on the island about 2 hours from their home in Helsinki.

Leena and Seppo in the dinghy going from the car to the island.

Preparatory to my professionally conducted estate sale I was required to vacate my house for two weeks so the workers could come in and set up everything for sale day. Since American Airlines recently started flying to Finland, I contacted a friend from Helsinki who was a Rotary exchange student at Valdosta State University in 1970 with whom I have been in contact ever since. I asked if I might come over for a visit and so I flew from Chicago to Helsinki on September 28.

Leena and her husband Seppo met me at the airport at 0830 on September 29 and we took a sightseeing ride along several bays going to their home where we sat drinking coffee catching up with each other since the last time we were together back in the early 90' s in Orlando. Later in the afternoon Leena took Seppo and me into downtown Helsinki and dropped us off to look around while she managed a few things back at her office. Seppo and I walked around seeing some of the places which I last saw in summer of 1970, the only other time I was in Finland.

We stopped in an Irish pub, what else, for a beer and then took a bus back to their house. Leena's brother, a professional photographer, who had visited me both in Las Vegas and in Orlando, stopped in for a visit later that day.

Since my plan was to be in Finland only for a long weekend we got up early the following morning and set out for the Jarimo summer house on a small island about 2 hours from Helsinki. We transferred our overnight supplies to a dinghy which they keep at the car park and crossed a small bay to their island. What a Hansel and Gretel setting. The white bark spruce trees with golden leaves and the soaring evergreens dappled the sunlight into little pools of bright amidst the shadowy forest. Ankle deep green moss covered much of the ground and looked like a most inviting place to spread a blanket to take a nap. Tiny black mushrooms protruded through the moss and we picked some for homemade mushroom soup which Leena stirred up as a first course of our supper that night.

Like all Finnish summer homes, theirs was complete with sauna, so while the wood was burning to heat the rocks in the sauna, Seppo and I went out in the boat to set out a fish net with which we hoped to catch enough for tomorrow's lunch. By the time we finished the sauna was ready so boys went first and we sweated out our time in the sauna. After about 20 minutes it was time for the bone chilling plunge into the Baltic. This was no time for wading in and getting used to the water, but rather a headfirst plunge into the breath taking numbing sea. After a few seconds swim it was back to the sauna for thawing out. Leena got her turn in the sauna after we finished.

When I planned my trip to Finland I was confident that the flight returning to Chicago on Sunday October 2 would have plenty of seats available and therefor no need to worry about getting one of the space available places. Good for American Airlines by the time my plans were finalized to visit my friends, the return flight had become slightly overbooked but it was too late to change plans. Well, as it turned out, I was the standby passenger with the highest boarding priority for that flight back to Chicago and I got the one and only seat left on the plane. I enjoyed my flight back to Chicago in business class and made a connection to Jacksonville easily. It was a 2 hour drive from Jacksonville back home but I decided to tough it out and sleep in my own bed rather than get a hotel. In all it was about 20 hours from Helsinki to Valdosta and I have had longer trips than that.

I was so glad to pull into my driveway and get inside my house for a long anticipated sleep. Little did I expect the impact of the upcoming estate sale as I entered and saw all my kitchen equipment laid out on the counter tops neatly priced to sell. As I proceeded further into my house I was most shocked when I got to my bedroom and the bed was already GONE! I slept fitfully in a recliner.

Freedom

Homeless, no furniture, not even a pot to piss in. And that's okay!

In March I returned from my second winter in Asia just in time to celebrate Ellen Dewar's birthday and recovery from cancer. After just a few days back in Valdosta, I was suffering from allergies and asthma like I had not experienced since I was about 12 years old. I was successfully treated by Dr. Fawzi Durani, whom I completely recommend by the way, and all was fine until a few months later when summer hit full blast just like a furnace. I began to think that I did not enjoy the summers here in Valdosta as much as I disliked the winters, so I started trying to think of a solution. I a light bulb going off in my head moment, it occurred to me that I should think of a way to avoid summer's and winter's extreme temperatures and spring's and fall's pollen saturated allergy inducing climates. The solution, I decided, would be to sell my stuff and rent my house, and it has been that course of action which has occupied most of my activities for the past month. On 8 October I scheduled a local company to come in and conduct a professional estate sale of all my belongings and on the following weekend ( was it really only 6 days ago?) I held my own moving sell. Now my house is completely empty and cleaned ready for renters in about 10 days.

Next Tuesday, October 25, I will travel to Jacksonville, Florida, with the Renfroes, resettle Max my cat with Rena and Shelly and their other pets Sandy the dog and Mojo the cat and fly on Wednesday to Chicago and onward to Beijing. I plan to travel several weeks in China and then fly from Hong Kong to Saigon, Viet Nam, which I think will be my location for Christmas and on through or new year on January 1 and their lunar new year, Tet, later in January. When asked I have said that I plan to teach English in Viet Nam. Maybe I really will!

So that's what is happening in my life at the moment. I will write a little more in different chapters about the moving process so that when I get to China I can start reporting more current events. If you are interested, you can read more.