How's Florida? A progress report of sorts.

My puppy on our lanai - watching over the neighborhood.

Good morning everyone. It's Day 1 of my 30 day writing challenge so I thought it'd be fun to update you on how life is going down here in Southwest Florida.

The short answer is ~ it's wonderful. Just wonderful.

My mom and I drove down over 4th of July weekend, and got settled. She stayed for about a week after, which was great. We got the minutiae of moving done; arranging things where I wanted them, going to Target and Bed Bath and Beyond and Publix again and again for things like soap dispensers, trash cans, etc - all that glamorous stuff.

When you move (or at least, when I moved), you tend to think about the big stuff. What do I want to take with me? What do I want to sell, or donate? (There is no better time to purge than when you're moving.) Let me schedule this for the move, that for the move. The big items get done because those are super necessary for the move itself. But what about the days and weeks AFTER? What about the small stuff?

What do I mean by "small stuff"? Things like:

* Where do I shop for groceries? Where is my nearest/best Target? What speciality shops have the best meat / fruit / seafood, etc?

* A vet for the dog.

* A hairdresser for me (ladies, you know this is IMPORTANT.)

* Healthcare providers like a doctor, dentist, etc.

And so on, and so forth. I found that at least in my case, I didn't necessarily give a lot of thought to those items. When you live in a place for years and years (like I did back in Iowa), you tend not to think about those people and practitioners you use because you've probably seen them for a long time. Heck, your parents and sibling and cousins ALSO probably see them.

I am still working on some of those starred items. Namely, my hair is a MESS and I need a trim, like, a week ago. And, my dog is due for his yearly check up in October so I need to get on finding him a vet, too.

I've also taken the time to explore a bit more of my surroundings. As you might know, I work from home, so it's very easy to stay in my house and in my neighborhood all week and not really venture out much. But as I my sister and I are doing with beaches (you can read about that on the Marco Island post), I am taking evenings and weekend days to drive around and get my bearings. I have started to get a little brave and try alternate routes, so I can possibly avoid heavy traffic when Season kicks me and snowbirds start arriving.

So that's the state of things. There have been many more things I've done, places I've seen, but I need to fill up blog posts for the next month so I am not going to tell you all about that now. ;)

Now I'm off to finish breakfast, drink another cup of coffee, and get ready for my tennis lessons. I will tell you about THAT tomorrow!

Thanks for reading, take care and have a great Wednesday!