We’ve been in our new home coming on a week this Friday – The initial transition and moving went smoothly, and we enjoyed the banter and liveliness of the two men who pulled the actual move off – They were a treat, and made the move easier to manage.

Being in a new place brings out interesting things, realizations mostly. For example, in Panorama Drive it was simple and routine when I got up in the middle of the night for my pee run because the body knew where it was, how many steps were involved, and it came off with ease. Now on my mid-night run my mind has to shake off the clouds of sleep just to negotiate the hallway to the bathroom until it becomes once again routine.

Then, finding things isn’t as simple because I knew without knowing where they were in the other place, just where they always were (well, for just 14 years anyway). Now, I have to think about it with each thing because the places for those things aren’t where they used to be before because everything is new here. And for a time, some things aren’t going to be “found” until we sort through the load of boxes we still haven’t unloaded for their new places in the apartment.

The old adage size matters, is brought into stark relief here because even with the downsizing from Panorama Drive, we still have a boatload of “stuff” for which the space here is way more limited, which begs the question, where will it all go, why did we keep it, and will there of necessity be another St. Vinnie’s run sometime soon?

The view out our windows is vastly different from Panorama Drive – there really isn’t a view out our windows. In Panorama Drive there were some 17 windows in the various rooms, and without exception each window had green prominently in view – trees, bushes, tree trunks, view of the valley below and central Eugene. Here our bedroom looks out onto a corridor inside the building we’re in, so that’s not really a view, and we keep those blinds permanently closed. This was instrumental in our decision to use the other bedroom for our office, rather than using this one. A bedroom is mainly for sleeping, so a view out the window isn’t necessary – It could have been nice, like the green outside our old bedroom at Panorama, but here not so much.

The view out our office is better, north facing, airy, and even I suspect on cloudy overcast days still bright. It faces onto W. 29^th Avenue, with the side of the Rite Aid building across the street facing us. Visible over the top of Rite Aid are the tops of redwood trees a block away, so there is at least that bit of green. W. 29^th Avenue is a major thoroughfare through this section of the city and is well used, but we’ve found that with double-paned windows the traffic sounds are barely audible, a soothing background hum. 

Time is another bit of realization – My normal daily routine begins with awakening sometime between 4:30 and 5:00, something I’ve done since forever inherited from my Dad. At Panorama Drive I took breakfast around 6:00 and read the Register-Guard. Barbara would rise somewhere around 6:30 and take her breakfast later around 7:00 or later. I used to take my lunch at 11:30, and we’d have dinner at 5:00. During the pandemic here, all meals are delivered to each apartment, with only limited eating in the cafeteria with reservations. The biggest adjustment with meals is waiting for them to be delivered, the times of meals falling way outside the times we are used to. We’re now on institutional time, not our own. And another aspect of time is projecting the future items of our meal choices for the coming week, in advance. Being a large institution, it is necessary for this level of regimentation, and I understand it and acquiesce to its command – It just takes adjusting to it.

Cascade Manor is a Continuing Care Retirement Community, with primary emphasis on the retirement part of the title. However, emphasis must also be placed on the community part as well, as this is a fairly large gathering of retirees who have chosen to live in this setting for a reason. For some it was alleviating the weight and responsibilities of home-ownership. Others wanted to downsize their lives and relax because after a lifetime of hard work, they deserve it. Still others wanted to avoid that unpleasant situation of having to make health-care decisions in the midst of a health crisis requiring a move to some form of supported living. Many probably have all three as their reasons for this move. While all three do fit our thoughts, the latter was the main reason for us – we didn’t want our kids to have to deal with having to take over our care with the attendant residential moves that might be involved. Barbara and I went through a difficult time when both our mothers were no longer able to live on their own. It was a nightmare for both of them sorting through 70 years of their lives, and for us hellish helping them through all of that. That’s not anything we’d wish on anyone.

Another significant part of the community sense is the quality of the staff and people who work or live here that we’ve already met in our first few days in our apartment. All the staff are super friendly and outgoing and helpful, making our transition so much easier. And some residents we’ve encountered have reached out to welcome us warmly. In a way this is somewhat daunting for two who are introverts, but we are meeting some amazing people in the process.

Now time is the underlying factor in everything – we wait for our meals to be delivered, at least until the pandemic is over and the routine here can return to eating in the cafeteria or the bistro. For the first 14 days of our residency, we must check in with the front desk for our Covid-19 screening, after which we’re free to roam around without that identifying tag signifying we’re newbies in residence. We’ll eventually figure out the lay of the land and not end up lost at the end of one corridor we thought was our destination, taking an extra 5 minutes to do what would normally have not. Settling into a routine that resembles that from our old haunts at Panorama Drive will take some time as well – trial and error, though the errors are really not wrong, they’re learning steps along the way. Retirement is all about time, so having time be the underlying factor in everything is what it is to be retired – We’re learning that all over again as we settle into our next part of our journey.

Hark…!