Last Days in Concord, First Days in Madrid

Our last days in Concord seemed to be an unrelenting series of challenges and setbacks—a house still not ready to rent, cats failing placements, customs documents sent by mistake to storage, and so forth.

Margot searching through boxes in the warehouse in Franklin Mass where our belongings
will remain until we obtain our residency visas. We have heard rumors in Madrid
that this is more likely to be closer to 6 months than the 6 weeks we had imagined.

Iris with cousin Alexia, rolling the many coins collected around the house.

Our first days in Madrid have been similarly marked by challenges and conundrums both expected and unexpected, but now they usually get played out in Spanish, and never with the assistance of our family and friends who helped us so much in Concord.

Claire hauling boxes to the garage, and being annoyed
with her mother. Sorry, Claire!

Interesting technique there

Della and Joan helping to get the house ready for renters

Special thanks to my mother, Joan, who did so many
things for us. Here busy at the endless inventory taking. 

No surprise that another great inventory taker was another librarian,
here is Stephanie with her daughter, Irene.

One of a gazillion jobs that Matt's father, Ted, did for
us. You would think that he wanted us out of Concord!

 

An Enormous Thank You to all the many friends and family who I did not get decent pictures of, but who helped us as well in so many ways--- dinners when we were living at the Best Western, lending me a car after we sold ours, taking care of our children, putting up posters for placing our cats, making me sit down and relax for brief periods, and so forth and so on.....

More on Madrid next time.