Shifting sands

I've gotten to Friday afternoon and I'm wondering what I did with my week. It's a pretty common human dilemma, I guess. I certainly haven't found time to be writing here!

What have I been up to? Well a great long list would be an exceptionally boring post, suffice to say that it's been a mixed week. Here are some memorable bits:

I've been tidying up loose editing ends for the summer issue of Japan Harvest. I've also kick-started the Autumn issue! Yes, we magazine editors work ahead!

I've spent time with two friends over coffee, part of working my way through a few farewells. Not fun at all, though necessary.

The hydrangeas in our yard are fully out now. Yesterday the
  conditions were just right for photographing them (overcast
 and sprinkling lightly). I think this is my favourite photo.

I spent time looking at photos of the last several years. One of a couple of my big To Dos before we leave in just over a month is to compile a small photo album that we can use to talk to people about our life here. I'm planning to use Blurb.com, which provided a very good service last time. But somehow I've found it hard to really get into the project this time.

I did write our prayer letter and get it sent out before the end of the month, that was satisfying in a week of somewhat unsatisfying bits and pieces. (Let me know if you don't get it and would like to.)

I've done some self-maintainence (twice to the gym and a massage too). Probably pretty important as I've been struggling with headaches again this week, especially at night time.

Yesterday I discovered that one or more of my email addresses are playing up. As I rely so heavily on email to do my job, I always find this disturbing. That added to my general poor concentration yesterday. I really wish my skill set included being a whizz at sorting out email issues, but somehow I generally draw a blank there.

I've been working a tiny bit on handing over my jobs. Have I mentioned that I'm handing bits of what I do onto seven people, no less? Not that I do seven-people's worth of work, but each person is busy with their own responsibilities  so they are temporarily taking on just a small portion of what I generally do. Handing over work is almost always harder than it sounds, even though I'm so grateful for being able to set things aside for a while, while I take on different responsibilities in Australia  I'll continue to do handover in dribs and drabs over the next few weeks.

Our van
One notable achievement of the week has been a gentleman's agreement about our car. I'll dwell a little longer on this:

Missionaries tend to have a looser hold on possessions in many ways. I've noticed a tendency to be free-er at sharing or giving things away than is common in the general community. Add to that notion the fact that cars depreciate quickly in Japan, and you'll find that cars are exchanged rather more freely among the missionary community than you might expect.

We've had our van for eight years now and had vaguely decided that we might be interested in getting a newer one for our next term. It's interesting how making big transitions like we do tends to add bookends to your life, and propel you to make decisions you might not otherwise make at that time.

We've done a lot of driving in our van—to the top of Japan, as well as down to Kyoto and many place in-between and it's looking a little shabby on the inside and out. It's almost as old as our eldest son, though has given us hardly any grief at all.

Then, in late April, an email went around the OMF missionaries here, with a long list of things that colleagues were seeking new homes for. They are moving back to Germany to head the OMF team there and obviously couldn't take most of what they own here, including their car and holiday house.  (If you're in Japan and would like to take a look at what they still have available, check it out here.)

The short version of the story is that we decided that we would like to buy their car (at a pretty cheap price). Which left us with a van of our own to get rid of. I advertised this on my FB page on Sunday afternoon and quickly got several nibbles. Within four hours we had a taker. And they were so excited. They really were in need of a replacement for their family had outgrown their little car and ours came at the right price (we asked only for the balance of the cost of the two-year safety check that we had done last year, but the safety checks are expensive).

However, now the hard work begins. We have to (I say "we", it's mostly David) do all the paperwork required to make the transfers of ownership on two cars, which seems quite extensive and time-consuming. It includes this procedure:

The following forms should be obtained from the local police department:

• Proof of Parking Space certificate (hokan basho shomei) 
• Police parking application (hokan basho shomei shinsei sho) 
• Map of the location of the parking space (shozaizu to haichizu) 

The Proof of Parking Space certificate must be stamped and completed by the owner of the parking space.

The police parking application should be completed and should include a map showing where the parking space is.

All three completed documents should be taken to the local police station. There is a fee for processing the forms.

All the above documents should then be taken to the Inspection Registration Office, along with the re-registration papers (stamped by the seller) and the owner's cancellation registration papers (stamped by the seller). These documents are available from the local city hall or ward office. (from here)

Noting that we are actually not the "owner" of the parking space, that would be our landlord, who we can only access via a "downtown" real estate agent. So today, after school, David's headed off to see if he can procure some of the necessary forms. Apparently some might be available from our mechanic, who is closer than the "local" police department.

Well that's a long enough post for now. Suffice to say that I feel a little more like I'm standing on shifting sands than I have for a while now. It's not that comfortable. I keep downplaying this transition: It's just six-months, right? And we're not moving out of our house, right? But the truth of the matter is that it isn't as small as I'd like to imagine and I need to be careful to give myself grace when I'm a bit discombobulated.