A number of people have suggested that Kim and I need to step away from the stress of buying and selling homes. After not a lot of thought, we decided to escape from all the hassle by making a radical change: We are moving to Australia.
I know, I know – this seems rather extreme. What do we know about Australia? Neither one of us has ever been there (though I have been to New Zealand twice), and I don’t believe we know any actual Australians. But we really enjoy Australian movies, and we think the movies have given us a pretty good feel for the place. It’s time to make a move.
Of course, we will have to travel there by ship, as Kim does not fly. We will shed the weight of our possessions by donating our Bark House, fully furnished, to our favorite Land Conservancy, and we will donate our car to someone or something, as the whole idea here is to travel light. Someone else will have to deal with the big job of disposing of the rest of our stuff. We probably should hold onto our car until it conveys us to California, where we expect to catch a boat ride to Australia.
We don’t know exactly where we will live when we get there. Six months or so on a ship should give us plenty of time to explore and decide where we want to live, thanks to the internet, and to decide what we want to do in Australia. Hopefully there will be some fellow Aussies onboard to advise us. Farming has a certain appeal. I have been fascinated by goats for the last several years, and horses since reading Gulliver’s Travels. And Kim’s gardening skills will make her a valuable member of any farming enterprise. The Outback also has a certain hardy attraction, and we should probably go on a walkabout – the ones in movies seem pretty cool. We don’t have many Aborigines here in Northern Michigan, and we hope to get to know some. Let’s just do it! We simply have to trust that the universe, which has looked after us so well in the past, will continue to do so.
There are, of course, some complications we will need to deal with. We will need to learn Aussie slang expressions, none of which I can recall right now. And learn to watch for kangaroos (“roos”) as we drive about in the car we will have to get. We will have to get used to the fact that January in Australia occurs in the summer. We will have to earn some money and find out how to get pensions and Social Security delivered to us. We will have to establish a team of doctors, dentists, etc., to look after our medical issues. (Did I mention finding a place to live?) We won’t know anybody there, so we will have to be a bit aggressive in making friends. Fortunately, we are Americans, so most people in other countries are predisposed to like us.
Another potential complication is that Kim is pregnant. We have often wished that we had a baby together who we could raise, and as I said, the universe looks after us, so here we are! My friend Bill is exploring whether the universe has consciousness. I’m wondering whether it has a sense of humor.