Jane here.
I miss Art very much, too. It's lonely here without him, and as I get rid of more and more stuff, the house gets emptier and more echoey. Sigh. Anyone who has been happily married for any length of time will know what I mean when I say that I have lost count of the times each day I start to tell him something, and then remember he's not here right now.
This end of the move is going in fits and starts. Remembering every magazine that has to get forwarded; every service that has to be turned off; every person, place and thing that needs to be notified of an address change is just the start of it. Moving to Alaska versus moving anywhere else is an interesting comparison. For example, you can't just call any old mover. Our stuff is basically getting shipped around the continent and through the Panama canal. Which means it will be better-travelled than we are in the month or month and a half it will take for it to reach us. Why don't I just load it in a U-Haul and drive it there? No passport is why. Plus it would probably wind up costing just as much and being considerably more of a hassle. Part of the moving charge is weight, so it's been an interesting experiment to see how much we have decided we can do without, though. Throwing things (or giving them away) out has become my favorite thing to do.
Then there are the cell phones. We were just going about our business, cheerfully talking away with our family plan, when suddenly someone mentioned to Art that roaming charges can be up to $5 a minute. !!!!! An extremely calm Verizon customer-service dude reassured me that we are covered, no roaming. They have coverage, at least in Anchorage, and we can just change our numbers when we get there. Whew! Then there's the insurance. I called our insurance guy to let him know the changes that were coming up, and he basically told me they don't write insurance in Alaska. This is a major insurer, so that was a surprise. But Art has a line on another carrier, so it's not such a big deal. Ya win some, ya lose some.
The house is listed, so hopefully it will sell soon. Anyone interested in a reasonably priced house in Eastern Pennsylvania?