I had an interesting encounter while I was out walking this morning. I was striding along minding my own business when I was hailed by a woman walking towards me with her dog. I was going to just greet her and keep walking, but she started talking to me, telling me I should hold my head up straight and keep my shoulders back, because she could see that I was walking bent over (I know I do that) and if I concentrated on holding myself up straight while I was walking I could straighten my spine. She said she was speaking from experience of her parents (in their 80s) having stenosis, but having just googled stenosis, I don't see that it's related to walking stooped forward or that it can be cured or at least eased by walking with your head held up and your shoulders back. She said she was telling me this because I otherwise looked to be in very good shape, and little changes can make a difference, but that she wouldn't have bothered to say anything if I didn't look like I was doing well. She seemed nice enough, and the advice to keep my head up and my shoulders back is good (and I'll try to remember to do it when I'm walking from now on) but it's still a bit weird to accost a stranger with this advice.

My daughter told me a few days ago (when we were talking about me moving up here) that she would like to see me moved up here (either to her house or to an apartment) as soon as October. The idea feels very daunting, but while I've been going about my usual life here, my mind has been busy working out how to organise it. I think the two most daunting things that are necessary are making lots of phone calls to cancel various utilities and other services (e.g. regular gutter cleaning), and getting rid of some large pieces of furniture that I don't plan to keep, like the two couches and the Ikea bookshelves in the living room, and one of the two queen beds and latex mattresses. (Those latex mattresses weigh a ton! We had the newer one delivered in 2020 during Covid and the delivery people had to leave it outside. It took S's and my combined strength to wrestle it into the house and onto the bed frame, and we just barely managed it. I imagine a couple of guys wouldn't have quite such a hard time though) Some of these things I can offer for free on the town email list or a freecycle group and have whoever wants them be responsible for getting them out of the house, but some, like the old couch we bought from Goodwill for $100 some years ago, just need to be thrown out. I'm thinking of hiring someone like "College Hunks Hauling Junk" to take away whatever nobody else wants.

Moving the stuff I want to keep is another separate project. I could hire a moving company, or I could use "Pods", which brings a pod to your house for you to load, then when you're ready transports it to wherever you want, either to a private property or to their local storage facility for you to retrieve later.

Then there's the whole matter of selling my house. I'm hoping to be able to arrange to sell it "as is" (as bad as it is right now) and take a cut in price to save the hassle of trying to completely fix it up for sale, since it will probably be torn down anyway.

I'm leaning towards moving here to my daughter's as the first step, and then transferring to an apartment within a few weeks, because it seems like it would be easier to arrange an apartment here if I'm physically here.