D-Day (D for Decision)

Well, we did it. After spending days and weeks coming up with enough backup plan ideas to make our heads spin, we finally got to a place where we both agreed on what’s best. It was almost comical how hard it was to align on this. One day I’d be thinking, “I bet we can go somewhere by September” and Mike would feel like it was hopeless. Then the next day he’d be thinking about road tripping within the U.S. until we can go international, but then I’d be more excited about just staying home. It went round and round like this until a few days ago, when we started really thinking outside the box and trying to come up with creative ideas. At some point, though, I think the cool, creative ideas actually grounded us more and made us realize that we should keep this simple if we want to keep working towards our long-term goals.

So, today we let go of the lease we’d signed with renters. They would have stayed in our house starting mid-summer, while we traveled around. Thankfully they have been lovely to work with and have stayed in communication with us throughout all of this. They’d simply requested that we let them know by the end of April, which was more than reasonable. As far as I know, they’ll still be moving to Boulder this summer, but now they’ll have to search for a new place to live. We hate that we’re inconveniencing them like that, and obviously it’s very sad for us as well, because it’s the first link in a chain of many cancellations/changes to come. But it’s really the most sensible of the options.

While we feel somber about it, there’s also a weight off now. Instead of feeling we’d be living in an ongoing limbo, we now know we have the option of just staying home until we get the all clear to travel. If we’d kept the lease on the chance that we could travel sometime in late summer or early fall, but then lockdown measures continued to drag on, we’d be having to scramble to find housing for ourselves that could be flexible enough to allow us to take off if/when the time comes. So much in life is already uncertain in these times, I feel less stressed knowing that finding a place to live won’t be adding to that.

I really hope our would-be renters find another great home in the area (I’m sure they will) and that we can take them out for drinks when all of this is over. And I feel pretty confident that when the time comes for us to tiptoe back out into the world, we can find another nice family to live in our house.

We still have no idea what our world travels will look like or when they will happen. But now we can let the future unravel at its own pace from the comfort of our own beds and couches. It’s not a very exciting consolation prize, but it’s bringing some peace to my mind today. I’ll take what I can get.

The cloud photos don’t really have anything to do with this post, but they match my moods for the week.