We Arrived Safely in Florida

North Miami Beach, Florida July 19, 2000
Aaron H. Schectman

THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.

WE'VE ARRIVED HOME (TO FLORIDA)

So much has happened during the last few weeks that it is hard to realize
that not everyone knows that we sold our house, packed up and drove down
with a vanload of possessions to Florida.

We arrived up in NJ in mid-April and put the house on the market. Although
it now seems a short time we waited non-patiently for a buyer. We cleaned
the house thoroughly and put every thing in order and waited. A few came -
walked quickly through and departed without a word. I didn't listen and
asked way too much. So the price was dropped in increments until one young
woman - looking for a summer rental but liking the look of the picture of
our house in the realtor's office - came, spent a lot of time looking and
later in the day brought her husband down. The house was sold that night,
June 21 and closed July 6. Between those two days there was a great deal of
activity on our part to get out - partly because we were being pushed by the
buyer and partly because of the mover's schedule. Only last night our RAV 4
was delivered! We had to leave it parked in the driveway when we left. Our
buyer agreed to give the key to the trailer driver.

We arrived in Florida after four days on the road and on that night, July
10, I went into the Hospital Emergency Room. It was discovered after
several days that I had a kidney stone and I was hours away from expiring
from the poisons accumulated above the stone.

This morning I had the "stent" which was placed up my urethra near the
stone pulled out (murder!). Yesterday I had the stone blasted with ultra
sound in a pool of water (which I never got to see). The procedure is
called Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy.

Carol is fine and I have LOTS of material to think and write about.