It has been a while.

California is in the rear-view mirror; it has been nine days since I left the state of my birth, the state where I have spent the last 20 years. Our furniture and possessions have arrived in Georgia, thanks to the wonderful folks at Gemini United.

[caption id="attachment_654" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Unloading in Georgia"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Texas-367.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-654" title="Texas 367" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Texas-367-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

We brought 8,200 pounds of stuff with us from California, and my guess is that somewhere between a third and a half of the weight was in books. It's funny. I have actually spent a lot of time and effort reducing the number of books I own -- many have been given to libraries, Goodwill, etc. -- but there really is only so much cutting one can do before getting rid of books that really matter.

At any rate, I am going to have a wall of bookcases in my office in our new home and that will be very nice.

So our possessions are in our new home.

But we're not.

Nicole is back in California finishing up some work things before she returns to start telecommuting from across the country, and I am in Virginia visiting my mother for two weeks. It's nice to be home in the house I grew up in and to see that some things really don't change over the years.

There's a comfort in that.

Still, I'm really looking forward to leaving my childhood home for my retirement home.

Life, as they say, goes on.