A Widow's Ride

Today is my official last day of work after eleven years with the same company.  Wow, I can’t believe that the day is actually is here. Just the other day, I was talking to a friend of mine and she mentioned that it seems like it was yesterday when we were talking about the trip when it was nine months away and it seemed like it was so far away. Now it is approaching upon much too quickly, it only a week away for kick stand up (ksu) and to start drifting on the back road of Americas.

I can’t believe that I have been planning for this journey and dealing with the closing of the estate for more than a year now.  So much has happened in the last year and it has been a huge roller coaster ride for me.  I can see now how much I have changed, grown and strives to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

I remembered in the beginning it all felt overwhelming and I thought I would never be able to sell all of his stuffs. I’m being nice here, he was actually a bit of a hoarders.  I had to sell thirty motorcycles, seven cars, five trailers, two acres of miscellaneous stuffs and a house.  You know what is ironic, that most people thought I would be lecturing everyone the danger of smoking but actually, I have been preaching about having all of your affairs in order in case of unexpected events such as death.  Since he died without will, I had to go through probate in order to liquidate everything.  Many has asked me why I had to go through that since I was his legal wedded wife.  Welcome to California, a community property state, which means that when he dies, the court decide how to distribute his assets among two living generations.  Lucky for me, his parents waived their right to his asset but I had to deal with the legal mess of probate.  I still wrapping up little things right up to the date of my departure and won’t be seeing fruit of my labor probably until July.  It has been a frustrating process and I do NOT wish it on anybody to have to go through this.  So this is why I’m the biggest advocate of having a will or a living trust.

As for the trip, I think I got everything that I will need except for the seat.  Next week, I will riding Purple with down to Hemet to meet the guys from Seat Concepts.  I always like their seats but it add about an inch to the height to the bike.  So I thought it would never work for me. Someone suggested that I give them a call to see if they would make a custom build a seat for me.  That is when I learned that they’re only an hour from where I lived and was welcome to bring the bike to the shop and they will design and build the seat while I’m there.  Whoo-hoo, I can’t wait to get my new seat, just in time for my trip.

Now that the estate and the bike is almost squared away, it is time for me to start packing up my own stuff that I want to keep and put it into storage for the year.  I’ll have to keep reminding myself how important is it while I’m packing.  So I don’t put my kids through the same thing in case anything happens to me.

Then it will be time to take that leap of faith and begin the journey of learning how to stand on my own two feet again  through motorcycle.