As we prepared our house in Washington State for renters during our absence one of our elderly cats said "I need a bigger box," thinking he was going with us.  It has been a challenging five months of sorting and purging many years of our possessions, along with son's and deceased parent's belongings. Several other folks who have gone to the field have commiserated and understood the effort, one couple advising us to be ruthless in the parting with things. Another said it took them two years.

During the process of going through items used during the raising a family, one of the neatest things re-discovered was a picture taken at Long Beach, when our sons were MUCH shorter. After home for the Christmas holiday, they head back to college as we fly east.