Progress

First and foremost, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and is looking forward to a safe Happy New Year.  I hope the coming year brings happiness and good health to all our family, friends, and new friends to come!

It's been a week since posting, but we have been very busy over the holidays, and had a blizzard thrown in for good measure! Blizzards are not very common here on Long Island, but it was a really good old-fashioned winter nor'easter with a good measure of snow thrown in. The snowfall accumulation could have been much worse, but the storm tracked closer to shore than forecast, and NYC and NJ really got the brunt of it. I don't mind :-). We did receive quite a bit of beach erosion though, as we have near hurricane force winds for a good long spell. Many homes are in danger, especially in Southold and Montauk.

Since it was so cold and ugly out, my mission for my 3 day weekend was to clean out the walk-in closet upstairs, sort clothes into keep/donate piles, go through piles of investment club paperwork dating back to the beginning, 1995 ( for those who were in the club, I found the colored-pencil graphed SSG's we did!!), and just get everything sorted out. And for the most part, mission accomplished. I can't believe the bags of clothing that went out for donation! And I still think I kept too much! We also started work in the garage again, I organized everything we had taken out of the Avalon when we traded it in, threw out a bunch of stuff, put what I'm giving to my sister's family in the car to take to them tomorrow, and I will say, between the closet and the garage, we filled a dumpster! Since it's suppose to be sunny and warmer (in the 40's!!) on Saturday, we will start packing the camping gear into the Cougar's basement. And I want to move my summer clothing into the closets, as it won't be warm enough here to wear them before I leave here, MARCH 26!

I also cleaned and packed the pictures off the walls upstairs, and packed all my Swarovski crystal and Disney figurines to go into storage. They will be relocated to Florida when the house sells. It is sad to start to see the vacant space in the house, but it means I'm making progress, and that makes me happy :-).

Technology wise, we have decided our internet option will be the Verizon 3G/4G aircard with 5gig service a month. Cradlepoint is working on the upgrade to our router so it will be compatible with 4G. Whereas 4G won't be rolled out on a wide basis when we leave, if we are in an area that has 4G it will be nice to have the higher speed. And we'll be ready when the nation-wide roll-out is complete. We were very undecided if we should try the Millenicom service first, as it is cheaper, no contract required, and has 20gig/month allowance, but it does use "leftover" bandwidth from verizon, and we're a little unsure how that will work out.

I will say, as we've been announcing our departure early next year from our business, it has been both gratifying and emotionally draining to hear the well wishes. I am most grateful for the customers that have been with us for so long, and who are taking the time to express their appreciation for the service we have rendered these past 30 years. It's so nice to know that we have made a small impression on so many people. It has always been my intention to keep the 'small-town" flavor of our shop, and even though our town of East Hampton has been taken over by big-name business for the most part, I feel we succeeded. I hope the new owners keep the same ideals, I feel that they will!

A last thought for the week, I have learned that a young girl in town has lost her battle to cancer today; please keep Katie in your prayers. It is difficult to lose anyone, but no parent should ever have to lose a young child to this insidious disease. May God willing, they find a cure for cancer someday!

Happy new year everyone! bring on 2011!!