Sand By Your Man

(Back when they both had longer hair)

I'm getting a little tired of complaining about the weather.  It's cold.  That's just the way it is.  We can either turn on the heat and warm up temporarily or move to a warmer cliamte and be warmer permanently.  Either way, cursing the cold does not make it any better.  Paul is at his wit's end with the cold.  While I'm none too thrilled with my feet being like ice or my fingers going numb, I don't see much to be gained by whining. 
This morning I looked up the price of U-Haul trucks to Orange County.  Not bad at $750-ish.  It's cheaper than replacing everything.  Earlier schemes included moving into an RV and visiting National and State Parks which would mean getting rid of anything superfluous (I'm still giving that one a thumbs up!).  Then came the plan to move to Guatemala so Paul could go back and finish his Spanish schooling.  That would involve renting a furnished place in Antigua (at a really affordable cost given the exchange rate!) so, again, getting rid of anything we could live without.  Now the plan of the day is to move to SoCal, I get a job as apartment manager and we have a free apartment on site.  That would involve an unfurnished place and therefore we would need to reassess what to take.  Up till now I was kind of enjoying the fantasy of chucking everything and having few posessions but, faced with this new reality, I am unamused at the prospect of eating, sleeping and sitting on the floor of an empty apartment and staring at the wall for lack of entertainment.  (Been there, done that.)  So that's what I'm doing today:  Sorting out the mechanics of moving.
Paul is working furiously to finish this semester of his Master's program.  He has a bunch of work to submit by next Wednesday (and he's behind) so he's sequestered in his office, coming out at brief intervals to warm his coffee and bitch about the cold.
Oreo is on the chair, shivering under his blanket with his head resting on his pink flamingo toy.  he misses the beach, too.

this was the photo in the paper
Paul grew up surfing there
(no wonder he's pissed off at haiving to wear long johns in June...)

None of this was helped by the teaser on the front page of the Sunday Seattle Times: Southern California's Best Beach Towns. The travel section was all about Orange County beaches and there was a huge picture of the Huntington Beach pier. I honestly thought Paul might cry when he saw it!!